A DJ and a musician are clubbing together to hold a bar night to help a four-year-old girl from Kilburn raise the £30,000 she needs to fund a life-changing operation.
DJ Esther Jones and Tom Murray will be hitting the decks to organise a fundraising night at the Good Ship in Kilburn High Road, next month to help the family of cerebral palsy sufferer Bailey Walters-Lawrence.
Bailey, who lives in Gorefield Place, needs the funds to pay for spinal surgery in April.
The Brent & Kilburn Times campaign to help Bailey has already raised £3,573 towards Bailey’s selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) treatment in just four days, but Ms Jones and Mr Murray have joined forces to in a bid to contribute towards the remaining amount needed before the operation.
Ms Jones said: “I was just so moved when I read the story of Bailey and how her funding to help her walk was stopped. I wanted to contact her mum to let her know we want to get behind her and help in any way we can.
“If we can get enough people to the pub night, where me and Tom will be playing a set, we could help this little girl get the treatment she needs.”
Bailey, who suffers from crippling spasms in her legs, was due to undergo SDR at Great Ormond Street Hospital to help her walk but after two years of preparing her muscles her mother was told in November that funding for the clinical trial of the treatment could no longer be found.
Acoustic musician Tom Murray says he came up with the fundraising plan because: “I found myself getting angry that Bailey didn’t have the money for her operation and thought I could use music, which is my passion, to get people together to do something about it.”
Responding to news of the plans for the charity night on March 13, featuring DJs and performances from well-known local artists, Bailey’s mother Shermel said: “I’m just gobsmacked by all the support and donations we’ve had so far.
“I can’t believe Esther and Tom have offered to help me and Bailey in this way and will definitely be going to the Good Ship. When I show her the donations page she says ‘is that really all for me?’ It means everything to us.”
For more information on Bailey’s race to raise £30,000 by April and to donate to the campaign see her Just4Children page here.
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