Throughout the year members of Aspire Fitness Studios Newton Aycliffe are taking part in various organised events to raise funds for its chosen charity ‘Changing Faces’. This is a charity that supports adults and children who have facial scarring or deformities through injury or condition that affects their appearance.
The charity is run purely by volunteers and relies on donations to help support families. Please check out the website to find out how the funds we raise will help. https://www.changingfaces.org.uk/support-us
On Sunday 8th May a team from Aspire walked part of Hadrian’s Wall from Chollesford to Walltown Quarry – a testing 22 miles in perfect weather conditions. They all finished with a smile on their face to be met and thanked at the end by the lovely Emily whom they were walking for.
The charity is helping one of our lovely gym members Nicola and her family. Sadly her little girl, Emily has been left with a permanent, significant scar central to her face after an aerosol blew up hitting her with direct force.
Emily received extensive plastic surgery to have her face reconstructed, part of her nose was removed ,rebuilt and her lips, reshaped.
Unfortunately the lacerations cut though her bone structure and severely disfigured her mouth. Due to her facial injuries Emily initially lost her speech and due to shock she was also unable to walk for a short time, thankfully through time, the continued support of the hospital and trauma team, her speech has fully returned.
Understandably Emily has been left not just with a physical scar but with mental scars too and thankfully, Changing Faces has been there to help. They support Emily by offering guidance to help her gain confidence, rebuild self esteem and learn techniques that she can use when handling other people’s reactions like staring or asking uncomfortable questions.
They teach Emily skills by sharing other children’s experiences, supporting the feelings and emotions to deal with post traumatic stress and simply helping her return to normality as smoothly as possible.
Emily is gradually gaining confidence and is making fantastic progress, continuing to impress her health care professionals and her family. Most importantly she is still managing to show that beautiful smile.
Emily would like to raise money to help others have the chance of the fabulous support she is receiving. Let’s hope we can raise as much money as possible to help fund such a valuable charity!
