Select a region
As triplets Margo, Edith, and Aggie celebrate their first birthday today, their parents are also celebrating reaching their fundraising target for medical treatment to improve Margo's quality of life.
The three girls were born by emergency caesarean a year ago today, after their mother's high risk pregnancy was called to a sudden end at just 31 weeks when she couldn't feel her babies moving.
A scan confirmed Margo and Edith were in distress so the planned c-section that mum Naomi Foley was due to have was brought forward and her daughters was born at two minute intervals late at night on 9 September, 2023.
Now, at one year old Aggie is hitting her milestones ahead of time for her adjusted age of 10 months. She can now sit unaided and was very close to crawling when mum Naomi spoke with Express last week.
Edith is following Aggie in meeting her milestones but can't quite yet sit unaided. She is not far behind though.
Margo suffered a brain injury during birth and has her own milestones to meet. These include no longer choking on her medication and learning to hold her head up.
Pictured: Mum, Naomi Foley holding Margo with Aggie and Edith behind.
As the girls have grown their parents have sought additional help for Margo to offer her the best opportunities they can.
That determination led them to a stem cell treatment available in the Netherlands.
The stem cell treatment could help Margo's brain develop new pathways, which in turn will help reduce the number of seizures she suffers, help her be more alert and improve her muscle tone.
A gofundme account - set up just over a week ago - to raise money to pay for the treatment and travel costs reached its target over the weekend.
Mum Naomi told Express today that it is "incredible".
She has also thanked everyone who donated via social media, writing "thank you is not enough for the gratitude we feel".
Pictured: Margo's gofundme account has met its target already.
Explaining the treatment last week, Naomi told Express that it will help massively as Margo lives with the effects of PVL which is something that can affect premature babies.
"There's a place in the Netherlands called CDC Health, and they generally do stem cell treatment for stroke survivors,"she explained.
"What they do is they give them stem cells from healthy donors, and the idea is that the stem cells will go into the damaged cells and settle them and then you do physio to get all the sparks going, and over the next two months they expect them to start joining with the unhealthy ones and hopefully take over and be able to receive some good signals and tell them to learn.
"For Margo, she's got PVL which is something you get with prematurity. Realistically (CDC Health) believes that it could help her seizures because that's something that we really do struggle with, it could help her be more alert and help her muscle tone.
"It could give her a better quality of life and make her more comfortable and more aware of what's around her."
Pictured: Margo with her mum.
Because the stem cell treatment is not yet approved by the NHS, Naomi was told there isn't any States funding available.
The gofundme page was set up on 31 August.
Naomi said last week that she hoped they can raise the money to pay for the treatment before Margo's second birthday.
This age range would then give Margo the best chance of success with the stem cell treatment, to improve her quality of life.
Naomi said they have left the gofundme page live for now because further treatments a year later are beneficial.
"Anything left over will go into a savings account for Margo for her future care and treatments," she said.
The gofundme page is available HERE.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.