The brave 12-year-old who needs £1,000 a month physio just to stop the pain getting worse - and it isn't available on the NHS

The single dad of a young girl born with two holes in her heart and cerebral palsy says he will ‘fight every day’ to ensure she is able to live her life to the fullest.

Freya Bailey, 12, from Irlam in Salford, relies on a wheelchair every day due to tense muscles and stiffness. To date, she has had five major operations, with the most recent one taking place just five months ago.

“Despite everything, she’s got a wicked sense of humour,” dad Darren, 50, said. “She has a real sense of adventure. Despite all of her difficulties, she’s very open minded about things. She refuses to let anything get in her way."

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Five years ago, Freya underwent an Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) operation at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. The surgical procedure helps to reduce spasticity in the lower limbs, but Freya’s operation wasn’t able to be funded by the NHS.

Specific requirements for SDR mean that the procedure can only be funded on patients who are aged between 3 and 9 and have a Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) ranking - which identifies how cerebral palsy can affect muscle tone - of between two to three.

But Darren, who works as a water engineer, says that because Freya was given a level four diagnosis of cerebral palsy, she did not fit the criteria for the NHS-funded operation. “It’s really difficult to get the funding for SDR beyond level three,” Darren explains. “But we knew it was what she needed.

“It’s taken a lot of pain away that she was in on a day-to-day basis. We saw it as a positive and a good thing. They reckon it can help reduce spasticity and tightness in the muscles by 65% alone. We noticed a massive