Martha Has a Minor Operation on Her Legs

Martha has just had a minor operation to inject botox into her leg muscles. This has the effect of relaxing the muscles (temporarily) so that focused physiotherapy can work on enabling Martha to straighten her legs and move her feet into a more normal position. This will hopefully aid Martha in standing and walking, something she has started to struggle with recently.

Martha at Frimley Park hospital waiting for her procedure

Martha will now have extra intensive physiotherapy over the coming weeks to make the most of her newly flexible muscles and she will continue to work on this in the months to come with weekly physiotherapy at school and at home.

Martha Enjoys a Weekend Away at the Bluebells

Martha has spent a lovely weekend staying with her family at Sebastian’s Action Trust respite holiday home, The Bluebells, located in Popham, just outside Basingstoke.

Martha and Mummy enjoying the Bluebells pool

The Bluebells is a specially built holiday home which provides respite accommodation for sick and disabled children and has many facilities such as a sensory room, a music room, a games room and a therapy pool where the whole family can enjoy activities and spending time together.

Martha and her sister enjoying an art therapy session

Martha enjoying the sensory room at the Bluebells          

Martha and her family are very grateful for the support that Sebastian’s Action Trust have provided them over the last few years. It has really made a positive difference to the whole family.

Martha Attends the Footsteps Centre in Oxford for her Latest Session of Intensive Physiotherapy

Martha has attended her latest three week intensive physiotherapy session at the Footsteps Centre in Dorchester-on-Thames, just outside Oxford.

Martha having fun in the "Spider"

Martha worked extremely hard during the whole period and was much more engaged with the therapy which should mean that she gets even more benefit from the session.

Martha Gets Her Very Own Eye Gaze

Martha now has her very own Tobii Eye Gaze computer. This is a specialised tablet computer from Sweden with built in eye tracking hardware and software to allow Martha to operate the computer with only her eyes. After successfully trialling this system at the end of 2013 we are now extremely please that Martha has her own computer to use at school and at home. Martha has started the long process of learning now to use the computer by playing games such as looking at pictures on the screen to cause an action to happen.

Martha using her new Tobii Eye Gaze computer at home

In time, Martha will progress to being able to make choices, let us know what she wants and how she is feeling through the device. It will also allow Martha to access parts of the National Curriculum that she currently can’t access due to her lack of verbal communication and limited gross and fine motor skills.  When given a limited choice of nursery rhymes Martha has already shown us that she has a particular favourite in “Miss Molly has a Dolly”...!!!

St Francis Primary School Generously Support Martha

St Francis Primary school in Ascot have very kindly supported Martha during their Lenten fundraising project. Each child at the school was given £1 and asked to use it to raise money. The money raised was split between Martha and a Portsmouth Diocese project. After much hard work by the children, Martha was thrilled to accept a cheque for £1389. 

Martha Enjoying the Sunshine at her cousins First Holy Communion

This will be enough money to pay for almost a whole session of intensive physiotherapy at the Footsteps Centre in Oxford. Martha has already been booked into sessions in 2015 and this money will go a long way in our aim to give Martha as much support as possible to reach her full potential.

Martha’s Magic Steps – Quiz Night – 2014

Thank you to everyone who attended Martha’s Magic Steps quiz night at the beginning of March. The evening went really well with approx 100 people attending.  We had a lot of great feedback about the evening and hope to do something similar in the future.

Quiz night in full swing

 Special thanks go to Kirsty, Gemma, Sharon, Trish and Tom for working so hard to put the evening together and raise an amazing £1738.04 for Martha to support her on-going therapy and equipment needs. Thanks also to the Cordes Hall Management Committee in Sunninghill for generously allowing us to use the hall for free.

Martha's First Independent Steps in her Walker Captured on Video

Martha has started using her walker (a Leckey Kidwalk 2) a lot at school. The more time she spends in the walker the stronger Martha gets and the more confident she becomes.

Martha's school captured a video clip of Martha using her walker in an exercise class and not only did Martha take a number of independent steps but also managed to kick a ball in the process.

The video is on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJHk4ZKa2B8

Martha is continuing to make great progress with her walking and walks in her walker every day and is able to independently walk in it for quite long distances.


We are very grateful to the Children with Special Needs Foundation (http://www.childrenwithspecialneeds.co.uk) for funding this fantastic piece of equipment for Martha.

Martha Enjoys a Quince Players performance of Wind In the Willows

Martha attended a matinee performance of the Quince Players pantomime Wind in the Willows with a large group of her family to celebrate her 7th birthday.



Quince Players supporting Martha

The Quince Players Charity Gala Night supported Martha's Magic Steps and raised over eight hundred pounds which is a fantastic amount and will go towards continued therapy and specialist equipment to support Martha's development.

Many thanks to the Quince Players for their continued support of Martha and the whole family.

Martha Enjoys Disney on Ice @ O2

Martha attended a performance of the Disney on Ice show at the O2 arena over the Chirstmas holidays.

Martha, Orla and Mummy at the O2

We particularly liked seeing Mickey and Minnie as well as dancing to the music and watching all the lighting effects, lanterns and fireworks.