Jim McGuinness with Paul and his mum Anne-Marie.
The family of a young Donegal boy have a real Christmas to celebrate after being told he will have an operation which could help him walk for the first time.
Little Paul Doherty was born with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy which left him in a wheelchair.
But his mother Ann-Marie never gave up hope of him walking one day and now Paul will have an operation in March 2015.
While the operation does not guarantee the five year old Killygordon lad will take his first steps, his mum is determined he gets a chance.
In recent months Ann-Marie has undertaken to raise the €60,000 needed for the operation in America.
Anne Marie explained “Since Paul could talk he always told me “Mammy, I want to walk”. It broke my heart to see him stuck in a wheelchair not been able to run about with his brother and sister or even to be able to pick up a toy from the floor that he wanted to play with.
“Paul is a happy boy, playful and full of devilment! As his mother, I always fought to get him the services and therapies he needed. While the HSE gave Paul what they could they could never offer him the opportunity to be able to walk.
“Then I came across an operation in America called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR). The operation involves cutting some of the nerves in Paul’s spinal cord that are misfiring the muscles in his leg.”
Anne Marie always said that the €60,000.00 would pay for the operation and just 4-6 months of an intense 2 year post operative physiotherapy program.
Now having gathered the €60,000 needed for the operation, Ann-Marie is continuing the ‘Mammy I Want To Walk’ campaign so Paul can get even more therapy to help him walk after the operation.
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