Botox helped my girl walk!

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Wrinkle buster injections mean Brooke Baker is taking a step in the right direction
By Jacqui Ramsey

Teenage sweethearts Shayne and Darren Baker, both 33, had been trying for a baby for over eight years without success.

Repeated fertility treatments and a miscarriage had left them feeling emotionally drained, so they took themselves off for a break to Amsterdam.

On their return Shayne was delighted to find she was pregnant. But their daughter Brooke was born prematurely after Shayne underwent an emergency Caesarean. brooke weighed jusr 2lb 15oz and was kept in special care for the first five weeks.

"It was a shock," says Shayne, from Tiverton, Devon. "I was scared that she wouldn't survive." Then, when she was just 18 months old, Brooke was diagnosd with Cerebral Palsy. The muscles in her left arm and her legs weren't developing properly.

Brooke finally took her first steps aged two-and-a-half but she walked on her tiptoe. Her leg muscles were too short to allow her heels to touch the floor.

Brooke was fitted with boots and a brace to aid her mobility and to help align her feet. She accepted the brace readily, but Shayne found it difficult.

"I hated taking her out. I was worried about the reaction she might get," says Shayne.

But Brooke became a favourite with neighbours and was adopted as a team mascot for Tiverton Town football club."she would be carried on to the pitch before the match. She loved it," says Shayne.

Brooke was then referred to Andrew Wainwright, an orthopaedic consultant, who said Botox might help.

Mr Wainwright says "Children with Cerebral Palsy often have groups of muscles that are overactive and over-responsive to stretch reflexes.

"Injecting Botox helps by reducing the number of nerve impulses that are transmitted to the muscles, and this prevents excessive muscle contractions."

Brooke had four treatments where Botox was injected into her legs. "The day after the final treatment we watched as she walked across the kitchen and we burst into tears," says Shayn.e The bets moment came when Brooke, now five, was able to run on the pitch before the start of a FA Trophy game.

"It was a really emotional day. She didn't want to get off the pitch," says Shayne. "Botox has given her independence."