Lottie Rann.
THE Isle of Wight has rallied round to back a girl hit by meningitis and paralysed from the neck down, by organising fundraisers to help bring her home.
Lottie Rann, 11, was enjoying a family holiday in the Lake District last spring when she was struck down with the deadly virus for the second time.
She was taken to hospital for a seven-hour operation to ease the pressure on her brain and spinal cord by removing a four-inch section of bone from the nape of her neck — an operation that saved her life but left her paralysed from the neck down. The youngster is now at Tadworth Court, a children’s rehabilitation unit in Surrey, and her parents, David, 45, and Christine Rann, 41, are desperately trying to raise the money to fully adapt their home, at Priory Walk, Niton, so she can return to the Island.
They have received money from the local authority and Meningitis Trust to adapt their home to accommodate Lottie’s motorised wheelchair but say it is not enough. They have founded the Lottie Rann Trust to raise extra funds.
More than £2,700 was raised by donations and events at the weekend, including a coffee morning at Niton Village Hall.
For more on how Islanders have been helping, please see the Isle of Wight County Press on Friday, February 22.
Reporter: emilyp@iwcpmail.co.uk