By David Hennessy
A nine year old girl with cerebral palsy from Kingsbury, North West London walked 10k last week to raise £6,500+ for her NHS heroes.
Although the original target was to raise £200, Ava Brosnan has raised £6,548 so far.
Ava was determined to take the chance to do something for the doctors and nurses who helped her and was able to use her ability to walk that is thanks to them.
Ava Brosnan was born with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy and had a life changing operation three years ago to help her walk unaided.
Ava also ‘shocked’ her mother in the course of completing her challenge, walking further unaided than she ever had before.
Ava’s mother Mary Brosnan told The Irish World: “We can’t believe it. We’re absolutely delighted. She’s delighted she’s raised so much money for the NHS.
“She’s so proud of herself. It’s given her the drive to carry on. She’s going to walk tomorrow. She wants to carry on.”
Mary took to her JustGiving page on Sunday to announce that not only had Ava completed her challenge, she had also walked independently for the longest time she had ever seen.
“Yesterday completely shocked me,” she told us on Monday. “She walked, for the first time without me holding her in some way up our road by herself. She was so determined to finish it.
“The walker’s just been fantastic. It’s really upped what she can do and she’s realised she can do more.”
Ava was somewhat inspired by Captain Tom Moore who raised a huge amount of money in a similar way “I suppose she saw him with the frame and thought, ‘I can do a bit of this’.
“She’s very determined like that when she puts her mind to something.
“Ava had an operation three years ago now and since then she’s had physio every day at school but she walks with a walker and can walk a bit by herself. I think with determination as she gets older, because she’s nine now, her walking just seems to improve all the time.”
Ava started the challenge on Monday 20 April and walked 1.5- 2k every day and only took Saturday off because she had blisters.
“Bless her, she did get some blisters. I said, ‘Have a rest today’. I had to convince her though.”
Donations really came flooding in over the weekend when the appeal got many sharess, including from The Claddagh Ring and our Facebook page.
“What did she say this morning, ‘I’ve gone viral’. It’s quite funny.
“But Ava’s Ava. She was doing her school work today. It was back to normal for her.”
The Irish World featured Ava on the front page some years ago when the family were trying to raise the £40,000 required for her life changing operation. They had raised £12,000 when they appealed to us. Seeing Ava on our front page, a businessman who wanted to stay anonymous came forward to generously pay the outstanding amount.
“She doesn’t let anything hold her back. She’s a very determind little lady.”
Ava is a big Mayo fan, both her grandparents her late Grandad,and her Granny are Munnelly from Ballycastle. The grandparents on the other side of her family were from Cork and Kerry.
You can donate to Ava’s cause by clicking here.
