More than 2,000 support Falklands boy's Shropshire operation plea
More than 2,000 people have signed a petition calling for a six-year-old boy from the Falklands to be given life transforming surgery at a hospital in Shropshire.
Kailand Ford, who has cerebral palsy, had been expected to fly to Britain with his family for treatment at the Orthopaedic hospital in Oswestry with an operation booked in for tomorrow.
But less than a fortnight ago the Midlands NHS made the decision not to fund the operation, a selective dorsal rhizotomy.
An online petition on the Campaigns by You website, calls on Linda Ward, who lead the NHS Midlands individual funding requests team, to reconsider.
It says that consultant orthopaedic surgeon Andrew Roberts has recommended the procedure for Kailand and is certain that it has a strong chance of being successful.
It adds: "Mr Roberts believes that this operation should take place within a three month window of May, June and July this year. If it does not happen within this time period, Kailand will need other operations on his joints, which will be even more expensive. Kailand will be doomed to spend the rest of his life in a wheel chair if he does not get this operation."
The six-year-old was born with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, which means he can only walk on his toes and cannot straighten out his arms.
His mum, Karen Armstrong-Ford, said she and his father had taken six months off from work, accommodation in Oswestry had been hired and a school place had been secured for Kailand's older sister, Kia.
She said: "Kailand is a brave boy, but if he does not use his muscles for a length of time, they seize up. He will wake up in the night screaming in pain.
"Recently he has been forced, because of the pain, to walk less and use his wheel chair more. Life is becoming more of an effort for him. He needs this operation. "
When residents of the Falklands require non-urgent, more complex surgical procedures and treatments than the island's small hospital can provide, they are flown depending on need to either to Chile or to RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, via military aircraft, to attend a British hospital.
"The treatment we have had at Oswestry is out of this world. The staff here are fantastic – very knowledgeable, kind and considerate, planning our three appointments each year to coincide with school holidays to avoid too much disruption for Kailand or for me," said Karen.
"Kailand is a very determined, tough and sociable character, is in the top groups of his class in maths and literacy, and has let nothing stand in his way, getting about quite quickly, loving the great outdoors. In fact he is quite a danger to others with the walker device he uses."
Since Kailand's diagnosis, his family has been raising funds for the Stephen Jaffray Memorial Fund, which provides flight and accommodation support for the families of islanders with a range of medical conditions. A return flight to the UK costs £1,600.
Sister, Kia, has already raised over £350 for the Memorial Fund by selling her own artwork.
