Please help Ricayla

Ricayla is a very soft spoken, loveable, respectable and caring 8 year old girl. She is loved by everyone she meets and with her positive attitude she is sure to leave a big mark on every persons life she touches. Ricayla used to love writing, playing with mud and decorating her mud cakes as if she were a professional.

Last year May 2022 her whole life changed. We found out she is completely blind in her left eye and that she has a brain tumour(Craniopharyngioma). She had her surgery on the 30 May 2022. During her stay in ICU post surgery she developed a DI and had a sodium level of 177 which they fortunately could get back to the correct levels. We stayed in hospital for almost

6 weeks after surgery as she couldn't move her limbs and kept having different setbacks. One week after we were discharged she complained that she can't see anything and that it is dark. I took her for a check up and they took a CT scan and found that she had fluid build up and had to go for another surgery. They decided to put in a shunt to drain excess fluid from the brain. And since then her eyesight has not improved yet.

She never showed any signs of having a tumour and when I took her for an eye test due to her left eye always turning outwards we only found out that she is completely blind in that eye and that's how we started the process of findingout what is causing everything. She used to complain of headaches and lost her appetite. When she did eat she started vomiting straight after. We took her to clinics and doctors on numerous occasions where she was diagnosed with different stuff all the time.

At the moment where we stay I tried searching for places to assist us in any way but unfortunately since it is a small town there is almost no help available. She would like to go back to school and at the moment I am busy with Department of Education in helping to get placement for her and also all the additional resources she will need.

We are in need of funds to help get her to see a eye specialist as there is a back log with the government hospitals and I won't be able to afford it at the moment. She is also in need of activities she will be able to do with her hands as at the moment she is not comfortable playing with other children and would rather sit and play on her own. I am unemployed at the moment as I had to stay out of work quite alot in order to help her and to make sure that she goes to her check ups on time and also trying to sort out her schooling and that is the main problem we have at the moment.

Any little will help improve her life and get her back to the cheerfull little girl she used to be.