LITTLE Gabrielle Harris has an extra reason to celebrate this Christmas after kind-hearted Teessiders helped raise enough for a special helmet to re-shape her head.
Gabrielle, of North Ormesby, was born with plagiocephaly - also known as flathead syndrome - and her only hope of correcting the problem without surgery is to wear the helmet, which is not available on the NHS, Gabrieele pictured with her grandad Ian.
Her mum Sarah McPherson and grandad Ian McPherson took a petition to Downing Street objecting to the treatment not being available on the NHS, but in the end they were left with no choice but to raise the money themselves.
The thirteen-month-old got the helmet in July but her family were then faced with a £2,000 bill.
Her auntie, Sherrie McPherson, led the fundraising drive which included car boot sales and auctioning a signed Boro football.
But it was her former workmates Jeff Cotton and Lyndsey Young at Pertemps People Development Group (PPDG), Thorntree who ensured they hit the target by nominating Gabrielle for a £200 "Give as you Earn" donation.
"This donation will make a great difference; in fact it is enough to pay the remaining amount for the helmet," said Sherrie.
"Approximately 30 children from the Teesside area suffer from the syndrome, so any money left over will be donated to another child."
Gabrielle has a malformation of the head marked by an oblique slant to the main axis of the skull, but treatment is not available on the NHS as it is classed as cosmetic.
"We are annoyed that it's not available on the NHS because drug addicts get methadone and people get boob jobs, gastric bands and liposuction, which are cosmetic," said Sherrie.
PPDG workers contribute each month to the Give as You Earn scheme and have donated more than £60,000 to around 150 good causes and charities in the last 12 months alone.
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i totally agree with sherrie why shud drug addicts and models get these things on nhs wen a child needs this surgery i just dont get it really !!!!
I'm completely agree with Sheree, A helmet should have been funded by the NHS to avoid putting this child through surgery. This young child did not choose to be born with this condition.
single parent families, working without telling the jsa, being unemployed for years spent in england,its all afactor of why this person cannot get justice look to the family for help when they are at fault as to why there is no funding for specail needs help