Northamptonshire girl needs £40k for physiotherapy after defying the odds to survive stroke

The family of a girl who suffered a severe brain bleed as a baby is fundraising £40,000 for physiotherapy.

Three-year-old Margot, from Denton, Northamptonshire, had a brain haemorrhage on 20 May, 2021, leaving her unable to move or speak.

She then spent months fighting for her life at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Now her family are trying to raise the funds to pay for intensive therapy which could give her the best quality of life.

Laura Jones-Billington, Margot's mother, said: "Everything happened so fast that you didn't really comprehend what had happened to her.

"She went from one hospital then to Oxford and then eventually to Great Ormond Street, and I think once we got to Great Ormond Street that's when we realised that she was really, really unwell and that she was fighting for her life."

A vessel had ruptured in Margot's brain so doctors had to remove half of her skull to relieve the pressure.

She was put into an induced coma, and ended up having a cardiac arrest, a respiratory arrest and two blood clots, while also suffering a stroke.

Ms Jones-Billington said: "Because of her stroke, she couldn't do anything.

"She couldn't talk, she couldn't feed, she couldn't swallow, she couldn't even have a drink, she couldn't move.

"So she had to learn to do everything all over again, and I think there was a lot of frustration because she couldn't do what she used to be able to do."

Margot has proved doctors wrong by surviving, but she has been left with lifelong disabilities.

Despite making progress since through NHS therapy, Margot is only just starting to talk again and still cannot use her right arm. She also can now walk unsteadily.

But the help from the NHS is not enough and they now need specialised private physio to help with her recovery.

Margot's parents have set a fundraising goal of £40,000 to get the three-year-old help.

Margot's mother added: "Intensive courses of therapies are thousands of pounds at a time, physiotherapy every week we're talking hundreds of pounds at a time, because she needs really specialised care.

"It's not just like she's broken her leg, she's got an injury to the brain and it's retraining the brain, so all of those things are really expensive."

Margot's JustGiving page can be found here.

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