How One Mum Raised £4,000 for Her Son’s Plagiocephaly Treatment
At Technology in Motion, we get to hear many incredible plagiocephaly fundraising stories. Recently, the story of Adele and her son, Evan, reduced even the more hard-hearted of us to tears.
A few months ago, Evan was diagnosed with severe plagiocephaly and we advised Adele to try a corrective helmet. Unfortunately, the Durham mother couldn’t afford to pay for the non-NHS-funded plagiocephaly treatment and began to worry that her son would be stuck with his deformity for life.
Standard NHS advice is that plagiocephaly is purely cosmetic and will correct itself over time, neither of which are necessarily true. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that plagiocephaly doesn’t always self-correct, especially in severe cases. And even if plagiocephaly is purely a cosmetic concern (recent research raises doubts), the resulting deformity can have a devastating effect on children’s self confidence.
Adele’s Plagiocephaly Fundraising Programme
Adele refused to give up. If the NHS wouldn’t help her, she would embark on a plagiocephaly fundraising campaign of her own. She wrote to Headstart4Babies, contacted local papers, set up the Help Evan group on Facebook, and organised local collections, community events, awareness days – everything she could possibly think of – until she had enough money for her son’s plagiocephaly treatment.
What She Did:
- Awareness day in local Asda with collection buckets and ongoing token scheme
- Sponsored night-time onesie walk through Durham city centre
- Fundraising club event with two local singers
- Halloween party
- Tabletop sale and raffle
- Fashion show
And she didn’t stop there. Adele ended up raising £4,651.44, more than twice the cost of plagiocephaly treatment. Aware of many other mums in the same position, she sent most of the spare cash to a mother of affected twins in Scotland and left the remaining money with the clinic to help other struggling parents.
Touched by Adele’s kindness, the Scottish twins’ mother went on a plagiocephaly fundraising campaign of her own. She has now raised enough to help several other mums, and the chain of goodwill continues to this day.
Evan’s head is now within the normal range and his helmet comes off on Friday 7th February.
For more information on plagiocephaly fundraising, please visit our charities and fundraising page.