A lifeline for Amelia

Amelia Goff is just seven-months-old and suffers from severe brachycephaly - also known as flat-head syndrome.

The condition can be very expensive to treat but the family from Meldrum Drive in Gainsborough are very grateful to have received a huge helping hand from the Tree of Hope children’s charity.

“Amelia is a very happy and clever little girl who’s developing well,” said mother Elise Edwards. “But I suspected that something wasn’t right as soon as she was born.”

“From her birth, we were always told that she would grow out of it. It started to look better but when she got to about six-months-old we got a second opinion from a specialist who diagnosed her as brachycephaliac.”

She continued: “It basically means that the back of the head is wider than it is deep. The side-effects are purely visual, but if left untreated then it can lead to problems with eye and jaw alignment and lead to other social problems like bullying due to her appearance when she goes to school.”

The treatment for this is not available through the NHS so can only be done privately - with treatment alone costing nearly £2,000.

Now, thanks to Tree of Hope, Amelia will get to wear a custom-made corrective helmet for 23 hours a day and can last between eight to 18 weeks.

Elise said: “I went online and found a lady who said that the Tree of Hope had fully-funded her treatment, so I got in touch with them and within one day they phoned back and said they’d pay for all of Amelia’s treatment.”

She went on: “I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if I didn’t try something. Since then I’ve just been overwhelmed with what the Tree of Hope have done for us - we can’t thank them enough.”

“Now we’re trying to raise money so we can help another child in need like Amelia. We’ve been very lucky and we hope other families can be as lucky as us. This is going to make such a massive difference to Amelia’s life.”

Amelia’s dad Andy Goff said: “We’re so relieved she’s getting this treatment - all manner of things could have come about and ruined her life and self-confidence.”

“There’s a window of opportunity to treat it, but we’ve received help just in time. We’d found three clinics that do treat cranial remoulding and it was £2,000, which we can’t afford. “

He added: “We’re so grateful to Tree of Life for stepping in and paying for Amelia’s treatment and improving her life immensely. Now we just want to do what we can to raise money for the charity, and awareness too - there are a lot of parents out there whose kids might have this or other abnormalities but don’t realise how serious it can be.”

To donate to the family’s fundraising cause for other children like Amelia visit www.justgiving.com/elise-edwards