One step at a time - Edith's hope for the future

We are leaving this page open for anyone who would like to make any additional donations towards Edith’s future. Due to the nature of her condition, Edith will always need therapies and new equipment and any help we can get towards the cost of these would be of monumental help.

Hello, thank you for taking the time to read our story.

My name is Dan. I’m the proud husband to my amazing wife, Kirsty and father to our amazingly unique daughter, Edith.


I am reaching out to friends, family and the community to help us raise money to buy a truly life changing machine called an 'Innowalk'. More on this machine and how it will help later on.

Edith is profoundly disabled which affects her both physically and cognitively. She has an unsafe swallow which means she is fed via a gastric button directly into her stomach and needs constant care around the clock. Edith’s condition, officially, remains undiagnosed but as far as we know to date the cause of her disability is due to the white matter within her brain not developing as it should have done. The result of this is our beautiful little girl, is not able to move around independently, communicate with us directly, eat orally or learn basic tasks easily. This doesn’t mean that she doesn’t try though and despite doctors initially telling us that her condition was potentially life limiting, she is continuing to surprise us every day.


The changes to her development are so subtle that it is very easy for them to go unnoticed, but she is becoming more and more engaging every month. If you read into conditions associated with white matter they are generally not very nice and usually regressive meaning that in theory she shouldn’t be making progress and should be going backwards. Not our Little E though. This fills us with hope that one day she will be able to move on her own and communicate with us even if it is with the help of various machines. We will never give up trying.


Even with her condition Edith has a beautiful personality shining through. She has the most infectious laugh and a smile that can light up the whole room. She has a sense of humour and knows when she is playing to an audience. It’s the little smirks and giggles when she knows we are laughing at her playful behaviour, that make us think there is more going on inside her head than she can let us know.



You may see this machine as something that will help Edith to walk and you may be right, but our reason for having this machine is a lot more important than that. As previously stated, Edith cannot move on her own and she has no way of exercising. Something that dawned on us recently, is that the bigger and heavier she grows the more strain there will be on her heart and lungs and there is the very real possibility that she could develop secondary conditions as a result of this. Edith does not have the instinct to try to walk and despite intensive physio and several different walking aids the progress is too slow. She needs the intervention now. Imagine a typically developing 5-year-old; the energy they have and how they can play and run around with their friends. Edith spends most of her time sat in her chair or on the floor with support from an adult. Our bodies aren't designed to be sat or led down for the majority of our lives and this Innowalk machine will help her is so many ways. By working the muscles for her and giving her the exercise she vitally needs, it will help build her muscle too. It will also strengthen her core and upper body which will be a great asset to her everyday physio programme. It will give her the feeling of walking and hopefully help her brain to make the connections it needs to be able to walk independently. I genuinely feel that if we can get the ball rolling and get her moving it will help her mental development too.



As Edith parents we always remain optimistic as to what she can achieve and by not having a formal diagnosis we take it as no one knows her potential. We understand that this is a very long road and the ultimate goal is to get Edith as strong as possible both physically and mentally, but right here and now she needs the foundations to build from. The only machine available out there at the moment that can achieve this is the Innowalk! At a whopping £16,000, this machine is by no means cheap, but saying that you can’t really put a price on your childs heath and well-being can you? We were so grateful and lucky to receive a grant of £2,000 from a local charity in the village where we live which will give us a good starting block to achieve this dream. We understand that there are so many pleas for help these days, but even if you can’t donate, please share and encourage others to do so.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

The Andres Family x



P.S to read more about our lovely little princess, head to www.lifewithlittlee.com