A FAMILY has launched a major appeal to take a little girl to the USA for surgery to stop her becoming more disabled.

Skye Cowan, now five, of Parkstone in Poole, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was three.

The incurable condition is caused by a brain injury and affects movement and posture.

Both of her legs have muscle stiffness and weakness, or spastic diplegia. Skye cannot put her feet flat on the ground and everyday activities such as standing and walking are difficult for her.

She has been given splints, physiotherapy and a 40-minute daily exercise programme to try to stretch her calf muscles as she grows, but she tires easily and sometimes uses a wheelchair.

“She can’t walk far – it gets too painful. She struggles to get on the toilet and we can’t leave her in the shower because of her balance,” said her father Steven.

Skye’s parents, who have five other children, discovered she could have an operation called selective dorsal rhizotomy, or SDR, to stop the spasticity getting worse, but it is not routinely available on the NHS.

A surgeon in St Louis, Missouri, who has been performing the procedure for the last 28 years is prepared to operate on Skye in October next year but the Cowans need to raise at least £40,000 to pay for it and another operation called a heel cord lengthening.

“We’ve been thinking about it since mid-February and looking into what options are available.

“It’s major surgery, but the surgeon has operated on over 2,000 children with a 100 per cent success rate,” said Steven.

“In the UK they are only just starting to do this. Joanna spoke to a consultant who said Skye wouldn’t qualify and if we waited until she was 16 they would look at it. If we waited until then, she would almost have stopped growing. I’m not saying severe cases shouldn’t have SDR, but if it can stop younger children getting worse, it makes sense to do the operation early on. Why put them through years of pain?

“We want to get her to America and have the op and start changing her life for the better.

“We just want her to be able to do things everyone else takes for granted.”

The appeal, called Reach for the Skye, has already attracted support from Poole High School, Barclays, Poole Town Football Club and SOS Recruitment. For details of how to help see the website helpfundskye.co.uk.

NHS Bournemouth and Poole spokeswoman Liz Kite said the trust had not received any requests to fund SDR for a local patient.

“It’s not something that’s a normal service yet. NICE guidance says it should only be done as part of a clinical trial.

“If anybody wanted it, they would have to apply to be on a clinical trial,” she explained.

To donate visit http://helpfundskye.co.uk/

How the condition affects the youngster

The brain damage underlying cerebral palsy tends to be in areas of the brain that control muscle tone and movement of the arms and legs.

Because of this, the brain is unable to influence the amount of flexibility a muscle should have. Over time the spasticity, or tightness, of the muscles can cause deformities.

SDR involves making a small incision in the lower back and testing the nerve rootlets of the spasticity.

They are cut and the normal ones left intact.