Mother releases book to raise awareness of disability (From Sutton Guardian)

Sutton mother-of-two talks of life changing operation for her daughter in America

10:59am Tuesday 16th October 2012 in News By James Pepper

A mother who raised £75,000 to get her daughter to America for a life changing operation has written a book about her incredible experience.

Sera Johnston, whose daughter Dana suffers from Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy, saw her book released this week which tells of her and her child's struggle.

Thankfully, the story has a happy ending, as since Dana had the operation in September last year she has not used a wheelchair, whereas before the trip, she was 90 per cent wheelchair bound.

Dana Johnston, now 14, was diagnosed at just 13 months old and the family faced a future of operations and injections in order to ease her muscles and try to make her more comfortable.

But after discovering the ground-breaking operation called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy, which releases muscle tension in Cerebral Palsy sufferers, the decision to go to the USA has changed the teenagers life.

Mrs Johnston penned her first book, Dana's Walk, after finding out about the operation in America.

The NLP Master Practitioner, who lives in Sutton, said: "I want to raise awareness of the barriers, negativity, and emotions I as a parent faced when raising a child with a disability and I would love to raise awareness of the operation that has completely changed Dana's life."

"The operation has changed Dana's life and it now seemed the right time to write this book."

The mother-of-two added: "The purpose of the book is two fold, firstly it tells the story from a mum perspective of bring up a child with a disability and secondly it provides a support for parents in a similar situation and has a coaching tool to generate alternative thinking."

Huge public support in Sutton saw the family raise £75,000 over a six month campaign which included events at the The Carshalton Rotary Club and the St Nicholas Centre.

The book was released on October 17 and is available on Amazon through Ecademy Press.

Further information can be found at www.danaswalk.com.