Our world capsized…

This time last year on 4^th December 2017, our world was turned upside down… our happy, healthy, beautiful little girl had collapsed at school and was being rushed to the specialist paediatric hospital in the city. Kayla had suffered an ischemic childhood stroke which had taken hold without warning, and underwent emergency brain surgery that afternoon.

The days that followed were spent 24/7 in the hospital at Kayla’s bedside in intensive care… Kayla had lost all of the movement in the left-hand side of her body and her face had dropped on one side making speech difficult; yet through it all she managed the most beautiful smile and was an inspiration to us all.

Our nine-year old son, Ryan, was unable to visit his sister in intensive care, yet he recorded heartfelt video messages and came to the hospital with his dad each day, to be near his little sister and to spend time with me in the hospital canteen.

It was in the canteen that I had to break the news to Ryan that our ‘holiday of a lifetime’, that we had been looking forward to for many months, was going to have to be postponed until things were settled and Kayla was well enough to travel such a long way.

We had been due to travel on 16^th December, flying into Fort Lauderdale and then on to Miami to undertake an 8-day Southern Caribbean Cruise, before spending a fortnight at Universal Resort Orlando & Walt Disney World Resort in Florida…our family Christmas present, for which we had been saving and planning for over two years. Ryan, understandably disappointed, yet more concerned for his little sister, simply said that the best Christmas present would be to have Kayla home and well.

A couple of days later Kayla was moved onto the main ward and brother & sister were reunited; watching the children play together as Kayla slowly regained her strength, dreams of our family holiday faded away and all our hopes focused on Kayla’s recovery and dreams of having our little girl home for Christmas.

Kayla’s strength and determination was incredible; day by day through rehabilitation exercises she gradually developed the strength in her arms and legs, regained the dexterity in her fingers and slowly learned to walk again.

Our little princess-warrior has been a true inspiration to us all and this photograph tells the remarkable story of our little girl who refused to be beaten, and our little man who showed such strength of character, always by his little sister’s side helping her through every step of her recovery.

A few days after this photograph was taken we were allowed to take Kayla home… we knew the next few months were going to be difficult in terms of recovery and rehabilitation but we had our little girl home for Christmas!

As we had planned to be away over the festive period we had to frantically pull together a make-shift Christmas in a short few days, yet we all agree that it is the most wonderful family Christmas we have ever had!

After Christmas and New Year, we packed up our lives in Spain and used what remained of our savings to relocate to the UK to be close to the specialist neurology unit where Kayla was receiving follow up treatment.

Kayla has recovered well and her condition is monitored with quarterly MRI scans and neurological appointments. We are yet to take our dream holiday but are putting away a little money each month in hope of covering the new flights and accommodation, and are extremely grateful to Carnival Cruise Lines for very kindly issuing a holiday voucher so that we may use our cruise next year.

We can’t always choose the music that life plays for us, but we can choose how we dance to it…