News / Natasha’s efforts raise thousands for kids’ causes
A MOTHER from Lerwick whose young daughter’s medical condition means she needs to be fed through a tube has raised well over £4,000 for children’s charities.
Natasha Fraser’s daughter Akira, who will be two later this month, has to be fed through a nasal gastric tube and has spent more than a quarter of her life so far at Yorkhill in Glasgow.
For the latest in a string of fundraising efforts, last week Natasha, 29, went on a liquids-only diet for a week to gain greater awareness of what life must be like for her daughter.
Several others joined her in taking on the challenge – her mother Louise Smith, step mother Dorothy Fraser, friends Ruth MacMillan and Katrina Williamson, and her mum’s friend Cara Allan – and so far they have raised just under £800.
Over the past two years fundraisers have included sales, teas, a sponsored walk organised by Vaila Hough, a sponsored toddler obstacle course – which Akira’s older sister Kiara, 4, took part in – and donations from friends in place of birthday and Christmas presents.
With some cash from the liquid diet still to be banked, the combined total raised stands at £2,836 for Yorkhill Children’s Charity and £1,430 for the nearby Yorkill Family House/Ronald McDonald House, where Natasha stays while Akira is in hospital.
She explained that her daughter was born – in November 2012 – with a malformation in part of her lymphatic system, which affected her airway.
At only 13 days old Akira was given a tracheostomy – a surgical procedure whereby an opening is created in the neck at the front of the windpipe.
“It meant a five-month stay at Yorkhill Children’s Hospital when she was born,” she said, “and various admissions since then, the latest for a major 10.5 hour surgery to attempt to remove the lymphatic malformation.”
Natasha said the condition was very rare and Yorkhill was the nearest place able to treat it.
She added: “An unexpected and at the moment unexplained complication from her last surgery in August is that when she swallows anything the food gets into her airway instead of her stomach as it should.
“It is still hoped that this is a temporary complication and that she will one day not need her feeding tube or her tracheostomy.”
- The next fundraiser planned is a Christmas market and teas at Staney Hill Hall on 14 December from 10am to 4pm. Anyone who wants to donate can visit either www.justgiving.com/AkiraMK/ (Yorkhill) or www.justgiving.com/AkiraMKK (Family House).
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