CARING pupils have provided the icing on the cake for a fundraising campaign to help send a disabled girl for revolutionary treatment overseas.
Students at Darlington School of Mathematics and Science staged a giant bake sale to raise money towards two weeks of intensive therapy for four-year-old Ava Roberts.
Ava, who has suffered from multiple epileptic seizures since she was a baby and has severely limited mobility, is to travel to Slovakia with her parents and six-year-old sister Molly for the pioneering treatment which uses space-age technology to help stimulate muscle growth.
Ava’s mum Judith Roberts, of Nettlesworth, Durham, said: “I am overwhelmed that the students here at DSMS are helping us raise money towards Ava’s treatment.
“It’s always amazing when anyone wants to help us as we need all the help we can get.
“It costs £10,000 every year to pay for Ava to have two intensive therapy treatments. We are £2,000 off that total at the moment so anything that the students raise will be very gratefully received.”
The fundraising event was organised by DSMS assistant head Caroline Kelly who worked with former teacher Mrs Roberts before Ava was born.
“Ava was healthy at birth but at two days old she stopped breathing, turned blue and her brain began shutting down,” said Miss Kelly.
“She spent two weeks in intensive care but doctors still can’t tell how much brain damage she has suffered until her epilepsy is brought under control. Our students were extremely moved by Ava’s story and really wanted to help.”
As well as selling cakes and biscuits, pupils also raised funds through a non-uniform day and selling ribbons and loom bands.
Year 11 student Rianna Massingham-Beale, 16, of Darlington, whose father died following an epileptic seizure in 2010 aged just 33, added: “My dad had a brain tumour and died after an epileptic fit when I was just 11, so obviously this fundraising is very close to my heart.
“When Miss Kelly told us about her friend’s daughter Ava we all just wanted to help and I’ve been baking cup cakes, brownies and biscuits to sell in school.
“It’s good to raise funds for a person you know rather than a big organisation and I hope that we can collect a few hundred pounds for Ava’s treatment.”
To support Ava, visit facebook.com/foravasintensivetherapyhope2013 or justgiving.com/foravasintensivetherapyhope or text ‘AVAR59 £’ followed by your donation to 70070.
