I have been truly humbled today to read of the inspirational young dancer Pollyanna Hope, who on the 25th April 2007, then aged just 2, suffered the traumatic amputation of her right lower leg after a London bus mounted the pavement and crashed into her, her mother Sarah and Grandmother, Elizabeth. Sarah was badly injured, and Elizabeth was killed.
After watching the Paralympic athletes during London 2012, Sarah was inspired to write to George Osborne, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, for funds to enable families to get sports prosthetics for their similarly catastrophically injured children. Pollyanna loved to dance but her NHS Trust could not afford the prohibitive cost of specialist limbs. Her campaigning paid off and in 2016 the Government announced a £1.5 million fund.
The BBC has today posted this terrific short video about
Pollyanna and Sarah (which I
hope they don’t mind me sharing).
Sarah was instrumental in the creation of the Elizabeth’s Legacy of Hope charity, which provides life changing support for children all over the world who have lost their limbs and I am delighted to share with you a link to their website
here.
Today, during the Commonwealth Games, it has been announced by the Government that a further £1.5 million will be invested into sports limbs, research and development. This is fantastic news. The money will go towards providing sports limbs for our children to enable them to enjoy the freedom to dance, to run, to compete: just like the brave athletes who stir our souls.