Member Article

Fundraising success for Poppy

A Leeds entrepreneur is asking the Yorkshire business community to dig deep to help one of her team raise money to fund a vital operation for her daughter in America.

Suzanne Metcalf has owned and run the Metzz Hair and Nail Salon on Kings Lane in Alwoodley for 14 years. When her longest standing employee, Alison Wadsworth, told her she needed to raise £50,000 to take her daughter Poppy to America for an operation, Suzanne decided to do all she could to help.

Eight year old Poppy has Cloaca, a congenital birth condition which occurs in 1 in 50,000 live births and exclusively in girls. Cloaca is when the rectum, vagina, and urethra share a single common channel.

Treating the defect is a huge challenge and will involve an anatomic reconstruction. Surgeons in the UK have done as much as they can for Poppy, but because her case is very serious, she needs an operation only available in America. The operation will be part funded by the hospital in America, the LGI and a charity, but the family needed to raise half – £50,000.

Suzanne has helped raise funds through tackling the Three Peaks Challenge with her husband and two sons, selling wristbands, and by running special events in the salon, raising well over £1,500. She also organised marketing and publicity for the cause, which has seen Poppy’s story travel the world, gaining donations and support from as far afield as Australia, Germany and the US.

Those donations, coupled with generous fundraising from the local community, mean the fund now stands at £45,000 – am amazing feat in five months. The operation has now been booked for November 2015, with the hope being the final funds can be raised in the next few weeks.

Suzanne said: “I’ve worked with Alison for 13 years, and Poppy is just a wonderful girl. This surgery will make such a difference to her life, and I just want to thank all my customers and staff for being so generous with sponsorship and donations. There’s now ‘just’ £5,000 to raise before October – so if anyone can help, we’d hugely appreciate it! Whether it’s a dress down day, a raffle or an individual donation – no matter how much you can afford to give, every penny will go towards giving this little girl a new lease of life.”

Poppy’s mum Alison added: “It’s been astounding – we’ve been so overwhelmed by the support from everyone, including Suzanne and all of our customers. We can’t possibly say thank you enough. What at one point seemed like an insurmountable amount is now within reach, and it means the world to us. In the last two weeks we’ve been able to go ahead and book the surgery, which we still can’t quite believe. Poppy is such a brave little girl, and I’m so proud of her. She deserves the very best treatment the world can offer, and thanks to all these wonderful people, that’s what she’ll now get.”

To donate visit: www.justgiving.com/Alison-Wadsworth

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Shona Nutter .