My little girl is paralysed after doing handstands and cartwheels in the garden – The Sun

WATCHING her little girl cartwheel and cavort in the garden, Louise Jones had no idea it might be the last time she'd see Maisie walk.

And given her happy nine-year-old was such an active and athletic youngster – the last thing on her mind was that Maisie had a rare brain disorder that would leave her paralysed from the neck down.

However, minutes after Maisie, from Hullbridge, Essex, performed her gymnastics for her mum – she was left completely unable to walk.

Louise is now sharing Maisie's story to raise awareness and to help raise funds so that Maisie might be able to walk again one day.

Louise, 47, said: "It has been extremely stressful and it is breaking my heart.

"A little girl doing cartwheels and handstands and the next minute she can't walk with no real explanation.

"It was completely out of the blue."

Maisie became paralysed after showing off in the garden front of her mum in June.

She been showing her best cartwheels and handstands until she suddenly felt dizzy and her tummy hurt.

Maisie was rushed to Southend Hospital, where she was forced to stay for a week, but the family didn’t receive a diagnosis.

At first, doctors diagnosed the tummy ache as "chronic constipation" and the dizziness as unexplained.

It has been extremely stressful and it is breaking my heart. A little girl doing cartwheels and handstands and the next minute she can't walk with no real explanation

To her mum's horror, Maisie was sent home and "could hardly walk" before she was admitted again.

But in July, Maisie collapsed and was eventually transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

At this point, Maisie couldn’t move from the neck down.

It was at Great Ormond Street, Maisie's mum and her dad Alan, 49, were told she had Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) – a condition which impacts brain function.

And her seemingly innocuous handstands had flagged up the rare neurological disorder.

Louise, who is now a carer for her two youngest children, added: "She has not been able to walk since.

"I was completely shocked that it was that and how impacted she is.

"It is horrible and awful for everybody. Our lives have completely changed."

Maisie has since been taken out of school and hasn’t walked unaided since July.

FND often impacts teenage girls and Maisie must now retrain her brain in order to walk again.

What is Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)?

People with FND can experience a wide variety of symptoms including:

• Weakness and abnormal patterns of movement (e.g. tremor, abnormal posturing of limbs, gait problems)
• Attacks of abnormal movement/change in awareness that resemble epileptic seizures
• Sensory problems
• Cognitive problems
• Visual and speech problems

Whilst the symptoms may appear similar to those seen in neurological diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Epilepsy, and can be just as debilitating, they are not caused by structural disease of the nervous system.

Instead, they are caused by a problem with the “functioning” of the nervous system.

The structure of the body is fine, but there is a problem with how the nervous system is functioning and how the brain fails to send and receive messages correctly.

This impacts on how the body responds to different tasks such as movement control.

Source: FND Action

Maisie has had to move to a downstairs bedroom because she can no longer use the stairs.

Her autistic brother, Tommy, five, has also struggled to cope.

"He doesn't understand why his sister can't play with him anymore," Louise said.

"Maisie gets upset because she can not get up and run around. She can't go to the park anymore because she gets too upset."

She added: "My little boy keeps saying when Maisie is better everything will be normal again. We don't know which way to turn."

The family is now raising "desperately needed" funds to pay for a private psychologist and therapist and for Maisie to have hydrotherapy treatment.

Louise added: "We just want her better.

"We are heartbroken seeing her struggle, our lives have changed drastically because of this condition and all we want is for Maisie to walk again."

CEO of The Brain Charity, Nanette Mellor, said: "Functional Neurological Disorder is a much more common condition than many people think and, because it affects the brain, it can affect people in so many different ways.

"We have supported adults who have lost their jobs and their homes as a result and young people who have been rendered paralysed by it for months at a time.

"For many people with this condition, their whole lives will turn upside down.

"I think one of the most difficult aspects of having a diagnosis of FND is that really, we still have very little information about the causes of it and this really impedes our ability to find treatment.

"FND is also known as 'medically unexplained neurological symptoms' so what we are essentially saying is that we don’t know what this is yet.

"The brain is such a complex and mysterious thing and we are only really just beginning to understand how to measure and assess what is going on inside it.

"So for those with FND, getting a diagnosis and remaining positive about finding treatment that will work for them is a long hard battle."

You can donate on Maisie's fundraising page here. 

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