Immy finds her feet

The Fund

We’ve opened a Community account called Immy Finds Her Feet Fund with HSBC bank to store all of the money raised by the campaign.  The costs of the surgery for overseas patients are fixed each year, and can be found on the “docs” section of the SDR facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/161839724125/doc/10150409359864126/

The cost of the SDR surgery is $35,740 and the surgeon has said he doesn’t know yet whether Imogen will also need some orthopaedic surgery to correct some of the shortening to her tissues in her legs etc.  If she needs this as well we will have to pay another $11,300. A further deposit of $6000 is also required to cover equipment and leg braces, for all children. We may get some of this back again.  The maximum we will need, a month before we are due to go, is $53,040.  At today’s exchange rate this is approximately £34,000.  We will also need flights and accommodation for the month that we are all in Missouri, which could be as much as £8000.

We are fortunate to be able to find several thousand ourselves by reorganising our mortgage payments, and have some very generous family members and friends who have got the fund off to a good start. But whatever we do, we can’t find £40,000 in 6 months by ourselves, which is why, after consulting family and friends, we have decided to ask for help. We have already been overwhelmed by so many people offering to fundraise for us, and help in so many ways!

If we were to end up in the fortunate position of raising more money than we need, we think there would be three options for using the extra funds.  (1) to set them aside to use for equipment or therapy that Imogen may need in future.  (2) to give them to another family or families who are fundraising for this surgery for their child and/or to other charities that have helped Imogen.  (3) to return some of the extra funds to the donors.  We will consider these options if the situation arises.