Abigail Newton Smith, the young cerebral palsy sufferer from Bradley Stoke who travelled to the USA for an operation to help her get around without a wheelchair, is to feature in a BBC West documentary tonight (Monday 20th June).
Abigail travelled to the St Louis Children’s Hospital to the undergo the selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) procedure in December 2010, after local people and businesses raised £36,000 to pay for the operation through the Footsteps 4 Abigail appeal.
At the time, the procedure was not available in the UK, but surgeons at Frenchay Hospital recently performed the surgery for the first time on the NHS – on a seven-year-old from Cornwall.
Both children feature in tonight’s Inside OutWest special, which goes out at 7:30pm on BBC1 West.
Toby Cox, another child from Bradley Stoke to have undergone SDR surgery in the USA, recently celebrated the first anniversary of his operation.
Related links:
Last night’s Inside Out West documentary can be viewed on BBC iPlayer until 28th June 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b0121k0j/