A FAMILY are looking to raise £50,000 to send their six-year-old daughter to the USA for a life-changing operation.

Amy Hepburn has quadriplegic cerebral palsy after she suffered an infection that damaged parts of her brain when she was only weeks old.

The six-year-old is completely dependent on her family, but a potentially life-changing operation has given the Hepburn family hope that Amy could have a better quality of life.

Selective dorsal rhizotomy is an operation which helps to improve muscle stiffness in children with cerebral palsy, but the procedure is currently unavailable in the UK and the Culcheth family will need to raise £50,000 so that Amy can fly to the USA for the treatment.

Her dad Gavin said: “Amy was born 10 weeks premature – she was a very tiny baby and weighed under 3lb.

“During her time in the intensive care unit she got an infection which went into her brain and caused damage.

“It led to her getting quadriplegic cerebral palsy and completely dependent on us to move her around – she can’t do what she wants to do.

“There is a new operation that has been performed about 2,500 times so far and a well-known doctor will do it for us.

“It’s been tried once or twice in the United Kingdom but it isn’t available over here so we need to take her to America.

“We are hoping that after the operation she will be able to use her hands and be able to feed herself which would make a massive improvement to her life.

“The operation costs £43,000 and we need to fly out and stay there for a month, then there will be physiotherapy for a year.”

The Hepburns started funding in November and have already managed to raise close to £30k for Amy’s five-hour operation.

Friends and family have done sponsored cycles, parties and collections for her while a Burn’s Night ball raised £7,000.

A three peaks climb is also planned for March, while two of Amy’s teacher at St Lewis’ Catholic Primary School in Croft while be doing a skydive for her on Saturday.

Gavin added: “Amy is a really bright girl with a lovely personality and she is very popular in school.

“Lots of people are getting involved and the school have been amazing – when Amy first went there they went out of their way to train their staff and learn how to help her.”

To donate to the Hepburn's fundraising efforts go to justgiving.com/amylewishepburn.