Cramlington woman Melanie Hartshorn issues urgent plea for help to pay for life-saving operation

Time is running out for a Northumberland woman who needs to raise more than £73,000 for critical surgery.
By Joshua Wright
Published 1st Sep 2022, 13:05 GMT
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Melanie Hartshorn, 32, suffers from a rare condition known as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), which causes very flexible joints and stretchy and fragile skin.

The condition also causes her skull to dislocate from her neck and spine, so she is unable to sit up and spends almost all of her time lying down.

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Her neck and spine were initially fused in 2017 in her first major operation in Barcelona and she now wears a surgical halo 24/7.

Melanie Hartshorn needs life-saving surgery next month but needs to raise £73,000 towards it first.Melanie Hartshorn needs life-saving surgery next month but needs to raise £73,000 towards it first.
Melanie Hartshorn needs life-saving surgery next month but needs to raise £73,000 towards it first.

The halo is a device which keeps her head and neck stable, therefore allowing her to breathe.

However, this is not a permanent solution as halos are only supposed to be used for six months before they begin to deteriorate, and she has worn hers for over a year.

Additionally, her fusion is now broken in two places, with four titanium screws being broken within her vertebrae.

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The surgery Melanie is hoping to raise enough money for is extremely complex, and will seek to fuse her spine through her throat and chest.

She also needs to travel to Barcelona for the procedure, as it is not yet approved in the UK. Without it, Melanie says she will soon be unable to breathe and will die.

So far, the Cramlington woman has raised £27,000, leaving her £73,000 short of her target.

She must reach her £100,000 target by October, which is when she is scheduled to have the operation with a specialist team, which means she has just six weeks left to raise the money.

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Speaking this week about her desperate situation, she said: “I’m the only person in the world that’s been in a surgical halo for so long, and without the funds for specialist life saving surgery, I will die.

"Time is running out.”

Melanie’s story went viral several years ago when she graduted from Newcastle university on a stretcher, and she now has aspirations of becoming a primary school teacher.

For more information about her condition and story, visit https://www.melanies-mission-eds.org.uk/.

To donate, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/MelaniesMissionToLive2021

Related topics:BarcelonaNorthumberlandCramlington