Creswell: Loving family rally round to raise £2k and ‘raise the roof’ for their Ruth

Hayley Wild, of Creswell, hosted the fun-packed garden party at her home on Saturday 2nd August, which saw family, friends and neighbours chipping in to raise money to kickstart Ruth’s recovery.

A raffle, guess the weight of the sweet cake, ‘Splat the Rat’ and balloon race kept attendees entertained and raised £2,000 for a good cause.

Hayley said: “On 2nd January 2014, my friend and stepsister Ruth Haslam suffered a basilar artery thrombosis.”

“In the days and weeks following her awakening, it soon became clear that Ruth was presenting with Locked-in Syndrome.”

“With the help of a fantastic medical team and lots of love from family and friends, Ruth has regained substantial head control and is working hard to regain control of her limbs.”

“She communicates using a Tobii eye gaze device which allows her to type out words and sentences using her eyes.”

“The aim is to help raise funds for any specialist equipment, therapy sessions and outings that will help Ruth on her long road to recovery.”

Alan Haslam, Ruth’s father, said: “The trouble is we don’t know how much any future treatment or therapy is going to cost at the moment.”

“Of course it’s devastating- there are good times and bad times.”

“I will say that the support from family and friends has just been incredible and we want to say a huge thank you to those who came to the party and contributed.”

You can get involved by following the Raise the Roof off for Ruth blog at http://raisetheroofforruth.wordpress.com or follow on Twitter @Support4ruth.

Donations can be made via PayPal by using the email address [email protected] with cheques and cash also accepted.

Simply email the given gmail address for the necessary information on where to send your donation.