Mum of girl, 5, with cerebral palsy hopes treatment will help her hear daughter’s voice for first time

The mum of a severely disabled five-year-old girl is hoping to hear her daughter’s voice for the first time after raising enough money for pioneering treatment in Panama.

Briony Winstanley will take her daughter Imogen Holmes to the central American country next year for her latest round of stem cell treatment.

Imogen suffers from spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, which has left her unable to speak or walk.

‘I just want to hear her voice’

But after successful campaigns, her mum and dad, Stephen Holmes, have raised £40,000 for ongoing treatment, the YEP reports.

A previous course of treatment saw Imogen become able to communicate by nodding her head - and now they hope another will help her talk.

Briony said: "The main thing I want to come from the stem cell is hearing her voice. If she crawls or walks, that is an added bonus, but I just want to hear her voice."

Imogen underwent an MRI scan before being diagnosed in June 2017 - just over a week after her first birthday.

Imogen able to communicate by nodding after first treatment

Imogen and her mum Briony and dad Stephen Holmes travelled to the Stem Cell Institute in Panama in 2019 for an eight day trip for treatment after £20,000 was raised.

Briony, of Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, said Imogen was later able to communicate by nodding and shaking her head.

She said: "It was amazing, because we had been trying just to get that little bit of communication.

"When she did that it was like a big weight had been taken off my shoulders."

A second fundraising campaign raised the £20,000 needed for a second set of treatment planned for 2020, but it was postponed due to Covid.

The family plan to travel to Panama in August 2022 for the treatment.

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