A Brakpan family is calling on the community to help grant their daughter’s wish to walk.

Three-year-old Christene Prinsloo suffers from cerebral palsy.

She was born on April 30, 2016, at 29 weeks, and spent 30 days in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Cerebral palsy affects muscle tone, movement and motor skills, and babies born with the disorder are often slow to reach developmental milestones.

Christene started crawling at 20 months.

“She crawls around everywhere, but gets very frustrated as she wants to walk and she can’t, which breaks our heart,” said Christene’s stepfather, Ilia Prodromos.

In March, last year, Christene started therapy at Muriel Brand School once a week and her family started seeing an improvement.

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In June, she started attending school and receives therapy at least four times a week.

“Christene is a very bright girl and has a zest for life,” said Ilia.

“Her only dream is to walk, so when her therapist called us in and advised us that we need to go see a specialist as there is nothing more they could do for her our hearts sank.”

A consultation confirmed that Christene requires surgery in order to walk.

There are also issues with her hips and she requires the surgery urgently.

“The bone that hooks into the hips is not in the right position and if we wait until she is four years old, the bone could hook out and then she would need a hip replacement,” said Ilia.

“Besides that issue, the tendons need to be stretched, her knees need to be aligned and her ankles need to be straightened.

“The doctor has said there is a 100 per cent chance that Christene will walk independently after she has made a full recovery.

“That is all we needed to hear; our dream is to see this little angel walk, run and dance.”

The family needs to raise hundreds of thousands of rands to cover the medical costs and make Christene’s dream come true.

Also read: A dream of a day for Jaden

A fund-raiser will be held at Cheers Pub and Grill at 280 Trichardt Road in Parkdene, Boksburg, from noon on Monday (December 16).

There will be a pool competition, a karaoke competition, lucky draws and fun for the whole family.

For more information about the fund-raiser call 083 402 3812 or 072 025 6954.

You can also visit the Help Christene Walk Facebook page.

Have a story?

Contact the newsroom by emailing: Thelma Koorts  (editor) brakpanherald@caxton.co.za

or Stacy Slatter (news editor) stacys@caxton.co.za

 or Miné Fourie (journalist) minev@caxton.co.za

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