Dear all,
One year ago, we embarked on a remarkable journey for Ciara.
Years of intensive training had effectively fought off many complications that cerebral palsy causes and provided Ciara with so much more than predicted by the doctors when she was diagnosed. Nevertheless, it had not been enough to keep Ciara’s spasticity from making her every day more and more complicated and often painful. It had also not provided her with the freedom of moving around by herself making her life so much easier.
We understood that we had to swallow our personal pride if we wanted to help Ciara to a better life. On June 25th, 2019 we decided to ask the public for help raising funds for her surgery and created the Gofundme.com fundraiser page.
Now, about one year later we are so happy to announce that we made it thanks to your fantastic support. THANK YOU! 🙏 ❤
The outstanding support we have received from our network, the local communities in Hockenheim and Reilingen, family, friends, colleagues, completely strangers and organizations have been overwhelming and with the 10.000 EUR donation from It’s for Kids we have now crossed the 85.000 EUR line and Ciara’s surgery will become reality in July. A total of 90.470 EUR has been raised.
You are incredible! Thank you so much. 🙏
We will continue to update www.letsgetciarawalking.com and Let's get Ciara Walking to give you a peek into the progress of Ciara’s journey towards a better life without pain, deformities and following surgeries. And being able to walk with her friends to the ice cream shop to buy ice cream. ❤

#letsgetciarawalking #sdrchangeslives #sdr #thankyou #cp #cerebralpalsy ... See MoreSee Less

Thank You - Let's get Ciara Walking

vimeo.com

One year ago, we embarked on a remarkable journey for Ciara. Years of intensive training had effectively fought off many complications that cerebral palsy causes…

1 month ago

Dear all who have been supporting Ciara’s journey towards her SDR-surgery in St. Louis, USA.

We have some exciting news for you. Let me get back to that in a moment 😊.

Recently the focus of the whole world has been the Corona virus. Entire countries have been shut down and terrifying reports about collapsing health care structures and the difficult environment doctors and nurses work in, have touched us all.

As most countries, the United States is severely impacted by the Corona virus and St. Louis Children’s Hospital has cancelled all SDR-surgeries until June 1st in order to safeguard the health of patients and staff.

During the Corona virus outbreak, we have been in close contact with St. Louis Children’s Hospital because cancellations of planned surgeries also affect future but not yet fixed appointments.

And this is the part where the good news come in. Ciara has been accepted for surgery at St. Louis Children’s Hospital on July 21st ❤.
Her pre-OP examination will be on July 20th.

We received the message late in the evening on April 24th. It is difficult to describe the emotions involved when you finally get a fixed date for a critical milestone after years of consideration, examinations, investigation, insecurity, analysis and fundraising. We call it a milestone because it’s not an end-date. After the surgery, rehabilitation and several years of gait-training will follow but this is definitely the most significant milestone for Ciara’s independent future without pain and follow-up surgeries.

We have now initiated a process with the US immigration service to be allowed to travel to St. Louis in case the restrictions for entering the US is still in place at the time of the surgery. Whether we will qualify for the national interest exception to the Presidential Proclamation or not, we do not know and despite that we have a date and the payment for the surgery has to be paid in full on June 6th we still do not know if the surgery will take place on the set date. We are however full of hope and cross our fingers that either the restrictions on entering the US is lifted or that we get the extraordinary approval to travel 😊.

Since March 17th the schools in Germany have been closed. Besides being home-schooled Ciara has spent the time boosting her training prior to the surgery.

She exercises 4 times/week according to the program from Walk This Way and has 6 x Galileo-training per week according to the program set by the University Clinic in Cologne.
Twice per week she rides her bike for at least 3 km and tops it all 6 times per week with a walk around the house with her walker.

Especially her daily walking shows how important the exercise is and how much it develops Ciara.

On March 17th Ciara was able to walk 150 m. in 35 minutes.
Today, April 26th, she can walk 150 m. in just 10 minutes.

vimeo.com/412119246

Thank you for reading. We will keep you updated about Ciara’s surgery as soon as we have news 😊.

#letsgetciarawalking #sdr #sdrchangeslives #walkthisway #galileo #unirehaköln #R82 ... See MoreSee Less

Walker

vimeo.com

This is "Walker" by Kristian Sandrini on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

2 months ago

During school vacation in week 8 Anja took Ciara to Perth, Scotland, for a week of intensive training preparing her for her upcoming SDR-surgery. Walk This Way UK has specialized in pre and post SDR training for many years. Ciara has been training there since June last year. See an excerpt of the training in this video. Enjoy 😊
vimeo.com/394789241.

Thank you all for making it possible to fulfill Ciara's dream of walking independently. There's a rocky road ahead but as you can see, Ciara is going all in.

#letsgetciarawalking #SDR #sdrchangeslives #walkthisway #walkthiswayuk #cp #realcrossfit ... See MoreSee Less

Pre-SDR Training at Walk This Way in Perth, Scotland

vimeo.com

Ciara attended the Pre-SDR Training during CW 8 at Walk This Way in Perth, Scotland.

4 months ago