Bike Ride to London

[p][b]Orlaith’s Story[/b][/p][p]Orlaith is nearly 4 years of age and has been attending NICE since she was 15 months old. A few months after Orlaith was born we were told she had severe hypotonia (low muscle tone) significantly impacting most areas of her body...feeding, toileting, speech and posture to name a few. As time has progressed, Orlaith has been working hard to increase her muscle strength to try and compensate for the lack of muscle tone. However, when she tries to engage her muscles her brain can confuse the signals it sends and instead can create high tone in parts of her body such as her legs, which have made achieving typical childhood milestones like crawling and walking more difficult to achieve.[/p][p]This is where the support from NICE to our family has been invaluable, we know that the best chance of Orlaith being able to walk and achieve independent life skills is by early intervention and intensive movement therapy. The conductors at NICE work with Orlaith to help her body learn patterns to make such skills more achievable and the progress she has made has been enormous. When we first attended NICE she struggled with head control and sitting, she has now achieved both skills and is working towards being able to stand and hopefully one day walk. The conductors at NICE are hard-working, driven and determined and really help us to keep pushing Orlaith to achieve the best possible outcomes. We are so happy to have found this charity and are looking forward to supporting them so that they can continue to help other families like ours.[/p][p][b]Who are NICE?[/b][/p][p]NICE is a specialist Centre for Movement Disorders based in Birmingham. They currently support over 300 disabled children and adults with neurological conditions. A lack, loss or difficulty with movement affects every aspect of daily life. People with disabilities can frequently spend much of their time being assessed for what they can’t do, rather than the potential they have. But NICE is different; they take a “can do” approach.[/p][p][b]What are we doing?[/b][/p][p]We want to say THANK YOU and raise awareness of all the work NICE has done for Orlaith and all the other families. On Saturday 25 May our team of 40 cyclists will be setting off from NICE HQ in Birmingham and cycling 120 miles, finishing on Westminster Bridge in London on Sunday 26 May.[/p]