Hello and welcome to my SDR website.

My name is Grace Murphy, I am 7 years old and live in Sunbury on Thames, Middlesex, in the UK. I live with my Mummy (Claudette) Daddy (Eddie) and also have a little brother called Teddy and a very mad dog called Murph!

I have a condition called Spastic Diplegia, it is a form of Cerebral Palsy. My family and I are trying to raise enough money for me to go to America so I can have an operation. This operation is not available in the UK. It is called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy or SDR for short. The operation is performed at the St Louis Children's Hospital in Missouri. Dr Park has been performing this operation for over 28 years, he has operated on over 2,000 children with a 100% success rate.

The SDR operation will help me considerably. At the moment I wear leg splints everyday to help me with my balance. I can walk but get tired very easily, I often trip and fall. I find normal everyday things really hard, like getting up and down the stairs, getting into Mummy's car and going up and down steps. This is because the muscle tone in my legs is always very tight. Any physical activity needs me to work extra hard and even though I always try my best sometimes I feel very upset that I can't be like my friends and brother.

You can read all about Spastic Diplegia, the operation and all of my planned fundraising events on the other pages. I am trying to raise £40,000 by June 2011. This is when I shall be going to America for my operation. If I am fortunate enough to reach my target for the SDR operation, any further funds will be used upon my return to the UK. I will require intensive physiotherapy, hydrotherapy sessions and specialist equipment. This will be needed for up to 18 months post-op for me to achieve the best possible outcome from the SDR Surgery.

If you can, any help you can give me to achieve my goal would be fantastic!

A big thank you for taking the time to look at my website.

Love

Grace
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