An Estevan family says they are "blown away" by the support they have received from the community as they raise money for their daughter.
Cindy and Jason Dalziel are in the process of raising $20,000 so they can continue to take their daughter Kate, who suffers from cerebral palsy, to Toronto where she receives much needed physical therapy treatments that have helped her begin walking, something they were told she would never do.
"We cannot believe how generous this town is," said Cindy. "We're a relatively new family to the community; we've only been here since '08 when Kate was born. The town and the companies have been amazing."
Dalziel said thus far the family has raised half of the funds they will need to take Kate to Toronto for continued treatments in 2012.On Sunday they raised over $4,000 at the Estevan Bruins game through a raffle table and $1,500 donations from Murray GM and the Great Canadian Oil Change.
As much as she's been blown away by the support the community has given them, Cindy says she has been equally shocked by the progress her daughter has made in just over three years.
Kate was born nine-and-a-half weeks premature due to suffering a stroke while she was still in utero and spent a month in hospital. Just two weeks after her birth, doctors told Cindy and Jason there was a 90 per cent chance Kate would have cerebral palsy, her motor functions would be limited and that she may also be blind and deaf.
After receiving that grim prognosis, the Dalziels began taking Kate to an early intervention program. However, shortly after Kate enjoyed her first birthday, doctors confirmed that she did have cerebral palsy.
"When she was just about one and a half, I had to ask will she ever walk and if they said no, she will never walk on her own," Cindy said. "Right after that, I kind of went into hyper mode of I gotta find something."
Refusing to believe that Kate would never walk, Cindy began researching possible treatments for cerebral palsy and learned that some patients were having success with a stem cell treatment.
She and Jason took Kate to the Dominican Republic for a treatment and saw great results. A year later, they took Kate to Mexico for another round and although they saw some gains, they weren't as significant as those witnessed following the first treatment.
"I think I went into thinking it was a one shot deal, you get your injection and she'll walk out of there. Clearly that doesn't happen. Different things were happening, she wasn't speaking before she went for stem cells and after that she had 20 to 30 words within a couple of weeks.
"She went from having both her eyes turned inward - she was having difficulty seeing and we had to patch her eyes - and the stem cells fixed that."
Although happy to see Kate's improvements, Cindy said she was still upset with her daughter's lack of mobility and continued to seek out further treatments. It was in January of 2011 when she stumbled across a physical therapy program called MEDEK that was being used primarily in Chile and Argentina. However, they were able to locate a therapist in Toronto and were soon on their way to the Ontario capital.
They initially spent a week in Toronto with a therapist named Esther Fink and witnessed incredible results in just a few days.
"She got Kate to do things we weren't able to do ever, that we didn't even think would be possible," Cindy said. "She couldn't even stand on her own at that point. We went back in March and in May, she took her first steps. Most kids when they take their first steps they are walking everywhere; well, it's different for kids like this. She'll take a few steps and then she'll have a growth spurt and her legs tighten up and she is back to crawling. It has taken since May to get where now, she can walk around the house everywhere."
While Kate is able to get around the house on her own, she is not out of the woods quite yet. To help loosen up her muscles she had a botox treatment and has also undergone serial casting to loosen and stretch out her muscles. Cindy and Kate also do intense therapy for 45 minutes twice a day.
As for the therapy in Toronto, Kate will likely need to continue with it for another year and a half as she continues to build muscle memory.
"MEDEK is a therapy where it trains the brain to know that these muscles are there and this is what you do. Through constant repetition, the brain starts to realize this is how to work it," said Cindy who added they continue to be thrilled with her progress and ability to walk.
"It's definitely not a normal walk and she will probably never walk normal, but she is upright and doing it on her own. One of the blessings of having a child with cerebral palsy is, other kids you take the milestones for granted, they are going to walk, they are going to talk and run and jump. When Kate does something she was never expected to do, it's huge. We have big celebrations for everything now."
The Dalziels have three more trips to Toronto in 2012 and between Kate's therapy costs and travel each journey costs $5,000. As mentioned, they have been able to raise $10,000 thus far and will continue to raise money to give Kate a chance to be a normal kid.
Anyone interested in assisting the Dalziels can give them a call at 634-3955. Cindy added that all contributors will receive a tax receipt for their donations.
