A Salford woman is crowdfunding for equipment so her disabled daughter can have life changing surgery.

Lisa Dobson, from Langworthy, set up her Gofundme page to buy a car seat for five-year-old Lilly Mae who was born with severe brain damage and stage five Cerebral palsy with right hip dislocation.

Lilly is due to have a double hip reconstruction in 16 months which will see her in a full body cast, but Lisa says that without the correct equipment the surgery will not be able to go ahead.

Lilly Mae is due to have life changing surgery in 16 months

She explained: “At the moment I have no lift so I literally carry her everywhere, I carry her up and down the stairs but the body cast will be neck to feet with a bar in the middle so I literally won’t be able to get her around the house.

“I will not be able to let Lilly have this really important operation if I am living like I’m living now.”

Lisa, who is 32, explained that at the moment the money she is raising is to allow her to buy Lilly Mae a car seat.

She said: “She can’t hold herself up so when we are in the car I am constantly pulling over to sit her back up again.”

Lisa explained that ideally she would have a fully adapted house with a wheelchair and ramp for Lilly, a lift with a hoist and hoisting rail for the upstairs of the house.

She continued: “At the moment we just have a buggy and she’s had that since she was two, it’s knackered.”

Lisa has applied for funding to adapt her house but has been told it could take up to 10 years for the adaptations to be implemented.

Lilly uses a buggy that she has had since she was two years old

Currently Lisa, a trainee support worker, carries Lilly around the house but she spoke about the physical and mental effects this has on her.

She said: “She’s getting taller and bigger but nothing is getting easier

“The other week I fell down the stairs and I wasn’t carrying Lilly but I couldn’t sleep for two days because I was just thinking if I fell whilst holding Lilly I would’ve killed her.”

Lilly was born with three quarters of her brain damaged but Lisa spoke about how determined Lilly is saying: “I see how she is at school and how much she wants to do things, she can’t walk but I show her what movements to do and she tries to do it.

“I want her to walk whether it takes 10 years or 20 years I want my daughter to take at least five steps by herself and I think with the guidance and help and support of our Government she can do that.”

Lisa, who is also mother to Leah, 13, and Fedell Junior, four, feels as if Lilly has been “forgotten” by the Government who have not provided any equipment since Lilly’s original buggy.

Lisa with Lilly, Leah, and Fedell Junior

She said: “I can try and raise the money for the car seat but a wheelchair is £7000 and I can’t raise that on my own it’s impossible.”

The Gofundme page has currently raised £576 and has been shared from London to Wales.

Lisa said: “I have been from Salford all my life and Lilly Mae is very popular around here, I can’t thank people from here enough for what they are donating.”

Despite raising over half of their target in just over a month Lisa said that the page is now slowing down and she is scared for the future without the equipment Lilly needs saying: “I treat Lilly exactly the same as I treat my other two and try to make her life as normal as possible

“I am scared that as she gets older without the equipment I won’t be able to do that.”

You can donate to Lisa’s fundraiser here.

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