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:: The Charities |
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:: Generously sponsored by: |
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Challenge Ben is a Three Peaks Challenge Fundraiser in support of Benjamin Attree and four UK charities: ManCCCF | CBIT | The New Childrens Hospital Appeal | ASBAH Challenge Ben is powered by Kube Six Creative |
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Ben is one of a set of twins born on 2nd October 2007. He started having seizures at around 6 months old and in June 2007 (8 ½ months) he was diagnosed with a large left sided tumour. He was immediately admitted to hospital (royal Manchetser Children’s Hospital, Pendlebury) where he spent the next 10 weeks. The two pictures show Ben during his treatment and more recently in December 2008. |
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Throughout the time spent in hospital Ben and his mum and dad received help from a variety of sources and experienced at first hand the usefulness of information and provided by a number of charities, the need for up to date equipment and the massive benefit of parent accommodation at a children’s hospital. |
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About Ben |
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if not all his accessible veins had collapsed through over use), an operation to insert a temporary drain into his brain cavity (to drain his brain fluid) and finally a permanent drain (‘shunt’).
Through these operations (which all required general anesthetic) Ben also had various chest x rays, heart ultra sound scans and brain / MRI scans requiring sedation (and some emergency ones where Mum just had to hold him inside the scanner). He spent 3 days / nights on intensive care.
Ben was also being treated with strong intravenous antibiotics to treat the infection and that course carried on for 6 weeks.
As a result of the tumor Ben suffered from epileptic fits although these are under control with medication and the hope is that he will be medicine and fit free at some point in 2009. |
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During his stay in hospital he had a biopsy operation, an abortive craniotomy (he wasn’t well enough to go through the operation), the full craniotomy to remove the lump (approx 10 hour operation), the wound re-opened a week later to clean it out as a result of an infection that he had acquired, a subsequent operation to remove the bone flap as the infection had taken hold in the part of the skull that had been removed, an operation to put a line into his chest to administer drugs and take blood (by this stage most |
