‘We have all our hopes pinned on America, but we need help’

She loves dressing up, nail varnish and adores Disney Princesses.

But Poppy was born with a rare condition which makes her different from her friends.

It also means her family are having to raise thousands of pounds for her to have surgery in America. Poppy has cloaca, a birth defect which affects one in 50,000 baby girls.

“It is a little word for a really big problem,” says her mum Alison, from Poppleton near York.

It means as well as having a number of internal problems such as only one kidney and a misshaped bladder, Poppy’s rectum, vagina, and urethra all share a single common channel.

“This defect is one of the most formidable technical challenges in paediatric surgery,” explains Alison, a single mum with two children.

“Basically speaking,Poppy was born without an anal opening, her waste is taken from her body by a bag. Her one functioning kidney doesn’t work properly and she is permanently changing antibiotics to try to fight infections in her kidneys and urethra. She has some sort of womb, but no vagina.”

On the day she was born Poppy went straight into surgery and has been in and out of the operating theatre ever since as doctors in Leeds have tried to help her with complex reconstruction surgery.

“It has been very stressful and heartbreaking,” says Alison.

“Her amazing surgeons in Leeds have done so much for Poppy to try to make her life as normal as possible, but they can do no more.”

Poppy’s case is so severe that doctors at Leeds General Infirmary have recommended that she travel to America for specialist treatment.

But the surgery costs £100,000 and while the clinic in American with support from the LGI and CHARM (a charity for children suffering from anorectal malformations) have agreed to fund 50 per cent of the treatment, Alison and her friends are fundraising for the remaining £50,000.

She is half way to her target, but is desperate for Poppy to have the surgery during the school holidays.

“The surgeon was going to come over to Leeds for a couple of days to operate on Poppy. But when he saw videos of her previous operations and pictures he said it had to be done in America with his team.

“I asked him three times could he fix her and he said ‘yes we can’.

“The surgery will take 22 hours. We will have to spend two and a half weeks in America and I really don’t want Poppy or her big brother James who is 15, to miss any more school,” says Alison, a self-employed hairdresser.

“So I really want her to be able to have the operation over the summer holidays which doesn’t give us very long to raise the money.”

The local community has rallied round and find-raising events such as a Three Parks Challenge, Lyke Wake Walk and collections at Leeds Rhinos.

“People have been amazing holding fund-raising events and have raised £32,000 since March which is incredible, but we still have quite a long way to go. The clinic won’t perform the surgery until we have all the money. If we make any extra money it will all go to CHARM.”

All the money raised goes through the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Charitable Trust and then onto the doctors in America.

“I want people to be confident that this is legitimate. The doctor in America says he is confident he can help Poppy. He is going to use her case as research to try to help other little girls.”

But Alison is more than aware that it isn’t just physical help that Poppy needs.

“She does get very emotional and doesn’t like to leave my side,” she says. “She won’t sleep with out me and we will need some psychological support down the line.

“She sometimes gets a hard time at school because she smells if the stoma bag gets knocked and a smell escapes, but she can’t help it and kids can’t help being kids. When she started school she did come home in tears as some of the boys had teased her about wearing a nappy. But overall they have been really good. I have made sure since she started nursery and reception that everyone in the class knew.

“She just tells the other children that she has to poo into a bag because she can’t poo normally. There have been a few of her friends who said they wished they had a bag so that they didn’t have to stop playing to go to the toilet.

“She has to be careful all of the time, even when she goes for a bike ride.”

Poppy gets a lot of support from her 15-year-old big brother James, who is very caring towards his little sister. The family is also getting support from CHARM, which helps children and family affected by cloaca.

“They have put me in touch with another mum from Scarbrough whose one-year- old has cloaca and she has been asking me questions about the condition,” says Alison.

“It helps me and I really don’t mind. Her little girl had a successful reconstruction and she almost apologised because it went well. I am just happy for her.

“We now have all our hopes pinned on America, 
but we need people’s help to raise the money and to try and make life a little more normal for Poppy.

“You just want to make life easier for your children and we are hoping that America will help Poppy.”

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