Final Post

I have so much to update you on.

Last Monday I was woken up at 4am. I jumped out of bed, got myself ready, packed any last-minute essentials and was out the door within half an hour. We drove up to the airport and were in the air by 8:40am. After 3 hours of travelling by various modes of transport, we were at the Eifel Klinik. I stepped through the doors and was instantly dragged into reality; this was it. We were immediately signed in and had to fill out pages and pages of paperwork which took a little while to complete. I was given a wristband which had all of my details printed onto it, making me feel like a walking statistic, and was told to go through to see a lady who would do some tests. The lady was very nice and made me feel welcome as she asked me information about my height, weight, allergies and medication, as well as taking five test tubes of blood to analyse. It was all very quick and, within no time, I was sitting on my new bed waiting for dinner to be served.

Quick interruption - The food at the Eifel Klinik was definitely not my favourite part of the experience. For lunch we'd have a very nice cooked meal which was always very welcome, but breakfast and dinner were both always very disappointing. Every day it was the same: Two types of bread, a slice of cheese, a slice of ham, various spreads and, if we were lucky, a yoghurt. I'm not complaining though as we did have unlimited tea and coffee, as well as both still and sparkling water on tap. Also we would have the occasional hard-boiled egg or piece of chocolate with our breakfast which was always a nice surprise. Overall it was a very big part of the Eifel Klinik experience!

Nothing much really happened on Tuesday medically, but we did meet some truely lovely people. I was there at the same time as Holly Isaac and her daughter Lilac, and Freydis Bjarnadottir and her son Gabriel. They all took us under their wings and made us feel very comfortable. Both of the children had had the surgery already and were quick to reassure me, telling me that recovery wasn't too bad and that VBT went really well for both of them. It was such a relief to know that they felt okay just a week after surgery and I knew then that there was really nothing to be nervous about.

Wednesday was the day of my surgery. I can't really remember much of it to be honest; I was asleep for most of it! I was woken up at about 7:30am and was immediately showered, changed and wheeled through to the holding area. I was given a pill to make me calm down and start to drift off, and waited there until I was pushed down toward the opperating theatre. I was then given my anesthetic and that's all I can really remember. The next thing I knew, I was lying in my bed in ICU surrounded by my family. Dad and Holi had come out for the day to see me immediately post operation and were returning home the following day. I was told that I'd been in surgery for about 4 1/2 hours and that there had been no complications at all. I was very sleepy and spacey from the morphine and I can't really remember much of the conversation but I remember being very happy and laughing a lot. I was also quite confused as I was connected to a lot of wires and machines, as well as having an oxygen tube going into my nose. The worst bit was probably the chest drain though. I didn't really notice it until they took it out a few days later which instantly made me feel much more comfortable and alert.

I was expecting Thursday to be a lot harder than it was. A lot of people who have VBT find it very hard to move after days of recovery, but I was already walking by Thursday afternoon. I spent a lot of time asleep or resting which was refreshing and the days spent in ICU were relatively uneventful. I was glad to be back in my normal room by Friday as it felt like I'd properly come out of surgery. It was also nice to lose the chest drain and cathetar which had made me feel quite helpless and bed-bound.

Not much really happened over the next few days. It was all very timetabled: wake, eat, take tablets, nap, eat, take tablets, nap, eat, take tablets, sleep. I was very qickly able to walk around which was a lot nicer and gave me some independence back, the nursing staff were very happy with my progress. My friend Elly travelled from England to see me which made it all more enjoyable. She spent at least six hours a day with me for the first three days after surgery. We spent our time laughing, chatting and Face-timing my other friends back home.

I think that my speedy recovery came as quite a surprise to the nurses in the hospital because they kept coming in to ask if I needed anything and were amazed that I was always so happy and well - I became the talk of the ward and was told that they'd never seen someone recover so quickly! I was given some physiotherapy exercises but it was still a massive shock when, just 5 days post surgery, I was told I could leave. We couldn't believe that it was so soon, and didn't like to push our luck, so we waited an extra day and then were picked in a hire car up by my Dad and Holi and travelled down to a very nice park in the Eifel region where we've booked a cabin in the woods for a week of recuperation at Dr T's suggestion. It's absolutely lovely and, although I am in pain, we can relax until we go home on the 20th. I'm looking forward to going home but am also really enjoying myself here.

Overall, it's been the biggest adventure of my life and I can't believe it's gone so quickly. I came here with scoliosis (a 62' curve), and am leaving with eight titanium screws in my spine and a 16' curve. It's been a huge rollercoaster and it's given me so much potential for the future. Dr T has benefitted my life in unimaginable ways and I will always be so grateful to him and everyone who has helped me down the road. I can't wait to see what the future brings.

Five Days!

It's been so long since my journey started. Eight long months of fundraising and preparation all building up to my surgery. And now I'm here, on the 3rd of August 2018, packing my bags ready to fly over to Germany for Anterior Scoliosis Correction. It feels so surreal that this is all so close to coming to an end. This is it. I'm just 120 hours away from no longer having a severe 50 degree curve to my spine. I'm still finding it so hard to process it all; it's so hard to comprehend.

We've packed everything we can think to bring. From 3 different types of pillow to chewing gum, I've got the lot. There are so many helpful videos and lists online telling us what to bring, what to expect and what to do after my surgery. We've taken them very literally and have packed everything that has been recommended. I'm worried about the recovery and the pain but honestly, at this point, I just can't wait to get it over and done with! It's been such a long time coming and I'm looking forward to never really having to worry about it again.

It never fails to astound me how far we've come and how many people have put in so much effort to help me reach my goal and so I just want to say a massive thank you to anyone who has:
Baked
Swam
Played
Organised
Watched
Bet
Bought
Made
Slimed
Photographed
Published
Catered
Sponsered
Partied
Arranged
Lent
Footballed
Comforted
Collected
Gardened
Read
And donated. Without you this would not be possible and I'm so increasingly grateful. Thank you so much x

No turning back!

What a big day! Today we transferred nearly £32,000 to the Eifel Klinik in Germany and the surgery is going ahead. It was more money than we thought it would be but everyone's hard work and generosity we can just afford it. 

For example, just today I received £235 from seven fantastic students who had a bake sale at their school. It was so lovely of them to think of me and I'm so grateful for their contributions. Also today, we received another £410 from the Brownies as a result of their three-park-challenge and there's more to come. Even the GoFundMe account is still active which is astonishing after all this time. All money which is donated even after paying for the surgery will help as my parents had to pay the remaining costs, putting them in debt. Any donations from now on will be helping us to meet the debt.

We also had a great day at Ware Carnival selling slime, squishies and sweet bags. We arrived early in the morning to set up. There were already a couple of stalls there but not many and so we had lots of time to get everything ready. My sister and I had to go to my theatre club beforehand so we were gone for most of the setting up but got back just in time to start selling. We made around £600; everyone wanted slime! It was on the day of the England quarter final too so Mum and Dad left us half way through to watch the game in the pub. It was very exciting trying to keep up with the scores and even more so when we won! We were there all day in the heat but it was so worth it; the people near us even had melon and iced coffee to help cool people down. Overall it was probably one of my favourite events that we've sold slime at. Maybe we'll go again next year!

I'd like to say a huge thank you to my sister's friend's mum, Rene, for getting us that pitch and generally supporting us all the way though my journey. 

One month to go!

It's all getting very exciting!

My operation is next month and we've booked flights and hotel rooms so it's all become very real. It's really started to sink in that I'm going to have major surgery in just over 30 days and I'm starting to feel very scared about it. I know that it's going to go well - Dr Trobisch is an amazing surgeon and the surgery has an extremely high success rate but I can help but feel nervous for what awaits.

In the meantime, I've had a very fun week - it was my prom! It was so much fun getting all dressed up and ready for it. I woke up early because I was too excited to sleep and immediately did everything that I could to prepare. My hair appointment wasn't for a while so there was a lot of sitting around in anticipation, but eventually I went down to Beau Belles in Sawbridgeworth, where they did the most beautiful hairstyle. I then rushed home, did my makeup, put on my dress and hurried down to my friend's house where we all met up and had group photos taken. None of us could keep a straight face for long, but we still managed to get some lovely pictures. We then drove up Hylands House in Chelmsford for prom. It was a brilliant experience. Everyone looked and felt like royalty and it was so much fun dancing and singing to the music. It went on for 5 hours and then eventually we had to leave. Me and my friends went back to the house where we had our own little afterparty. It was great fun and we didn't get much sleep! Overall it was a fanstastic experience and I loved every second of it.

There has been a lot of news for my fundraising as well. I've had some very generous donations and gifts sent to me. Persimmon homes has given us £1000 to help us reach our goal, and on the 30th of June, Jono and Wendy Fordham organised a quiz night in Little Hadham, raising £630! It's been so kind of people to be so active in helping us to achieve our goal, and I can't believe how much money we've managed to raise in such a short amount of time.

The highlight of my week has to have been when I recieved a lovely little package in the post. Louise Roach had sent me a collection of poems, stories and drawings made by her son and his friends to make me feel happy. It's so simple yet so lovely and the amount of time and effort they must have put into it is astonishing. It made me smile reading through it all. Thank you so much for that.

School's out!

I've finally finished my GCSEs! It's so nice to be able to sit back and not have any exams to worry about. Plus, I have an extra month of holiday before the rest of the school even break up! I've been to some parties, met up with some friends and now I have the whole day to relax. Not much has happened this week in terms of scoliosis, but finishing my exams is a huge triumph.

That being said, there have been a couple of events which have taken place. On Saturday we had a stall at the Party on the Pitch at the Sawbridgeworth Football Club. My cousins had flown over from America and they were very eager to help out with running the stall and making slime. We arrived around 12:30 to set up and we already had a couple of customers come over before the event even started! Overall we sold lots of slime, squishies and bags of sweets and raised around £230. It was a lot of fun and the event was brilliant. The live music was amazing and the food was delicious. I hope we can go again next year!

Also, yesterday the local Brownies did their three-park challenge astonishingly quickly - half their predicted time! We came down to one of the parks to watch them and they looked like they were having a lot of fun despite being very tired after so much running around. They all managed to complete every piece of equipment in the park without giving up and I'm very impressed by them all. We're not yet sure how much money they raised as they have to tally up their sponsers but I'm sure it's going to be a very substantial amount considering the amount of work and effort they put into completing the course.

We're so close to our goal now. We've raised roughly £22,000 and it looks like we may reach our goal by the deadline! It's astonishing how far we've come; last christmas we had nothing. I can't believe how many people have done so much for the cause. You've helped change my life and I can't begin to express how grateful I am. This August is going to be tough for me, but my whole life would have been tougher if it wasn't for you. Thank you.

If you haven't noticed, we've added a follow tool to the blog so you can keep up with my story without having to search for it! It would mean a lot to me to see some people who are interested in hearing me throughout my journey with scoliosis. I hope it helps!

The only way is up!

This week has been half term and so I've had a chance to take a break from exams and catch up with some friends. It's been really nice to have a more relaxing week, especially as I know that it's all going to start up again tomorrow. We've done some really fun things, for example on Monday we went on a surprise trip to the seaside. I absolutely loved walking up and down the pier and paddling in the sea. Also, one of the little cafés sold iced coffee; perfect for such a hot day! We were only there for one night, but I could have stayed there for weeks and would have never got bored. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end.

There has been a lot happening at home too though. The Brownies have offered to do a 'three park challenge' where they have to complete every piece of apparatus in three playgrounds in two hours. This will require them to complete a whopping 62 activities in just 120 minutes! This is on top of the £30 they've already raised doing the bra pong at our football match. I used to be a Brownie myself and so it means so much to me that they will support me and help to raise funds for me at such a crucial time in my life. I am very thankful and hope that they all do very well in their three park challenge!

Also everyone in Sawbridgeworth can expect to get a picture of me through their door soon! This is thanks to Kings Estate Agents who have promised to support us throughout my fundraising. They're going to donate a hundred pounds to the fund everytime someone rents out their house or somebody rents a property via the leaflets being posted around Sawbridgeworth. This is in addition to the £3000 they've already given us. We're extremely grateful for this generous donation - it is incredibly humbling to see how lovely people truely are. Thank you.

It's amazing. We've just broken the £20,000 mark which is astonishing. If anyone happens to have a spare £10,000 lying around, now would be the time to send it...! 🤣

Fun in the Sun

I'm sorry it's been a while, I started my GCSEs this week and revision has been very time-consuming and overwhelming. I've already had a few and they were really hard - I hope I did okay!

In the meantime, it's been the most amazing week for our fundraising! Last weekend, my grandparents' friends opened their garden to the public. It's absolutely beautiful there and goes on forever; it even has it's own river. They had an amazing turnout, with countless people making donations and it raised over £1000. Thank you so much to Hugh and Margaret for all your time and effort.

The other big event this week was this afternoon's football match and fun day. This was arranged by the amazing Gary Hanson and was one of the best events yet. We had stalls, food, music, bouncy castles and, of course, football! Luckily, the weather was on our side as not much of the entertainment was indoors. That being said, we did have the wonderful Tom Dulieu playing his brilliant music. I spent a while in there listening to him and he was really good. My family was running a stall with (more) slime, a raffle and some lovely jewellery made by my neighbours. We made lots of sales, raising lots more money for my surgery. The football was really good too, with a few famous faces in the mix including a few of women who used to play for the Spurs Ladies team! Sawbo FC won in the end and they definitely deserved it. During half time we had entertainment from Theatretrain, featuring songs from some of the students including myself. It was very nerve-wracking, but also a lot of fun! Overall we raised about £3000 which is absolutely phenomenal.

Overall it was my favourite event so far, and a real coming together of the community: Scouts, Brownies and friends all chipped in. I can't wait fot the next event, but for now, it's back to my exams.

Roll up! Roll up!

Yesterday was the annual Sawbridgeworth Mayfair, a brilliant community event made all the better by record breaking temperatures, and we got to run a stall in order to raise money toward my surgery. Mum and Dad had to wake up early in order to help close off the road and set up our stand. Holi and I stayed behind to sort out our last bit of slime making and labelling, as well as boxing up all the Squishies that we would sell. We got picked up, alongside all of our stock, and drove down to the fair where Mum already had the flyers and raffle on display.

We laid the slime and the Squishies out, with big pots at the back, little pots in the middle and Squishies sorted into size order at the front. I was also in charge of laying out the boxes of jewellery kindly made by my neighbour on another table. I had two friends there with me and the fair wasn’t due to start for half an hour, plus it was really hot, so we wandered around and looked out for good stalls. One particular game caught my eye: pick a ticket with an odd number and win a toy pug! I got one of my friends to try to win me one, but he didn’t manage. Luckily it was a prize-every-time game so he won me a really cute mini pug instead. 

Then, we ate and went back to the stall where we took over the slime stand. We had so many customers! Half of the pots were already gone, as well as most of the squishies! I was there for about ten minutes before Holi came back and we must have sold ten pots in that time which was fantastic. Then, my friend and I took some flyers and started handing them out. It started to become a bit of a competition, and I won by a long way so I was quite proud! 

Overall, it was a huge success all of our takings added up to over £600. It couldn’t have gone better, and I’m so thankful to everyone who helped us achieve this.

I’d specifically like to thank:

• ·         Claire Stockwell and Helen Warnok for running the Mayfair and letting us set up a stall.

• ·         My sister Holi for making the slime which sold so well.

• ·         Elena Vulliamy, Alex Faber and Abbie Shadbolt-Smith for helping us to run the stall, hand out leaflets, and sell the slime, Squishies and jewellery.

• ·         My neighbours Jackie and John for making the beautiful jewellery for us to sell.

• ·         Pets at home, The Manor of Groves, The Café of the Angels, Henry’s Dad, Beautology, The Mint Café, Sweeny Todd’s hairdressers and The Queen’s Head for kindly donating some fabulous prizes to our raffle.

• ·         And of course my Mum and Dad their tireless support.

Birthday Girl

Last week was absolutely brilliant; it was my birthday! I had an amazing party featuring a panic room, Chinese food and a trip to my friend’s house. I got everything I asked for and more, including tickets to see my favourite music artist, Frank Turner! I can’t wait! Overall it’s been an amazing week and a great way to start my year of being sixteen, and I couldn’t have asked for better company.

My party was on Sunday, and before then I spent the day at the London Marathon. It was great fun, although it was really hot and I started to burn a little bit in the sun. I can’t imagine how the runners must have felt! Lots of people we’d heard of were running, including athletes, celebrities and even some friends of ours. I saw Mo Farah which was really exciting but, although we tried, we couldn’t see anyone else that we recognised because we had to rush off in time for my party.

This week has just been an ordinary week other than that and so I haven’t really got much new news to share. A quick reminder that the mayfair, football match and open garden are all coming up. I hope I’ll see some of you there x

GoFundMe link

Not a blog upload but a few people have asked me for the link to my gofundme account so here it is!

https://www.gofundme.com/surgery-for-alis

Thank you so much for all the support x
-Alis

Nuts in May!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted recently; I’ve been very busy over the Easter. My GCSEs are rapidly approaching and it occurred to me that I should do some serious revision!

Today was the dog races I mentioned last time and it was so much fun! The excitement of having so many people cheering on their favourite dog was just brilliant and the room was constantly buzzing. My favourite dog was ‘Toasty Post’ and, although he didn’t win his race, he was clearly having a great time. Overall I only guessed two winners correctly but I didn’t mind because it was still fun to see the dogs running and cheering them on.

We’re not stopping there though; our next big event is going to be a football match at Sawbridgeworth Football club on the 20^th of May. It is being run by the local Minister, Gary Hanson, and is going to be a fun, action-packed day full of sun (I hope!), sports and stalls. Tickets cost £3 for adults, £2 for children aged ten and above and free for children under ten. There will be halftime entertainment courtesy of Theatretrain and Tom Dulieu, and all the proceeds go toward my surgery.

Also, this Mayfair, we are going to have two stalls. One will be a raffle with some amazing prizes and the other will be my sister selling slime so look out for us!

Other events in May include: a garden in the local village of Widford which is opening to show it’s spring flowers. It will take place at Elia Cottage in Nether Street, Widford, Herts, SG12 8TH from 12-4. Plus, I’m going to be presented with some money which the scouts have raised through their recent enterprise event, and there’s also going to be a quiz night which is being organised by some local people in Allens Green Village Hall. More details coming soon!

Surgery still feels unreal, which is most probably for the best at the moment considering that my GCSEs are right around the corner. What a big year!

Stanmore's got my back

This week has been very eventful. I went to see our consultant at Stanmore and he said that he’d offer follow-up appointments after I get my surgery. We were worried about what his response would be, but he quickly put us at ease, telling us that he’d be happy to support us along the road, despite the fact that the NHS doesn’t currently provide the procedure. As it’s a new surgery, I hope that my results would be very beneficial to his research and hopefully that will help other sufferers in the future as it could aid the reintroduction of VBT in the UK. It was really nice to get this reassurance and I’m feeling a lot more confident about the near future. 

Also, last weekend, a boy in my year threw a party for his GCSE in enterprise and gave all takings to me to go towards my fundraising for my surgery! I went to the party and it was amazing; everyone had a great time and I loved his Tiki-inspired garden. It was huge and he had a fantastic house; it felt like something out of an American movie. It was very cold though – I’m very glad that we missed the snow! I think that he’d make a very good club-promoter.

The other big news this week is that we’ve launched our next event. On the 15^th of April, there is going to be greyhound racing at the Harlow Dog-track. They’ve kindly donated tickets for us to sell and all proceeds will be going to my fund. Tickets cost £5 and can be purchased through our GoFundMe page. It will be lots of fun for the whole family and is at the normal admission price plus you get a free drink! I hope to see you there :)

Courtesy of these latest events, my fund has comfortably pushed over the £12,000 mark!