Mum makes emotional plea to help keep her daughter alive

Zoe O’Connor has tried several different monitors in the past but has found they do not always work because 12-year-old Kyla only fits on one side, meaning conventional sensors under her mattress can miss them.

As a result, Zoe, of Heathlea, Hindley Green, has been left with no choice but to spend up to £700 on a new, more advanced monitor that will help her sleep easy for the first time in five years.

She said: “In the past I have had monitors that goes under her mattress from a charity but because Kyla only shakes on one side when she fits it is missing quite a few of them. So I gave up on that one and got a baby monitor but it doesn’t reach my room.

“I then got a monitor with a TV camera which does reach my room but it only gives off a tiny beep which doesn’t always wake me up. I don’t think I have slept for five years.

“When it goes off the camera records for 10 seconds so when I check in the morning I notice I am missing and then Kyla is panicking because I am not there. I am just worried something will happen.”

The need is more pressing now then ever as Kyla, who also has cerebral palsy, has started fitting more regularly, especially at night.

“She was diagnosed when she was born because she had seizures in the first few weeks,” Zoe explained.

“They went away for about a year but then they came back and they were really bad at one point. They changed her medication and she dropped to having a couple a month.

“In the last three weeks her seizures have started getting more frequent and she has been having around five a night. It is really worrying.

Zoe is not yet sure how much the new monitor will cost but has been inundated with offers to help Kyla, who attends Hope Special School, and has said that she will donate any extra money she raises to charity.

She is also hoping that someone with experience of using similar monitors could provide her with advice on which one to choose.

“There are so many and I don’t know which one will be best for her. I am going to an expo in two weeks which has lots of disabled equipment but some of them can cost up to £700,” she said.

“I thought I would see if people would mind helping and the feedback has been great. People have offered to hold raffles and a pub has offered to hold a charity night. The response has been overwhelming.”

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