INCREDIBLE community spirit has helped a Basingstoke family generate £26,000 in less than two months to pay for a life-changing operation to help their little girl walk.

People in Basingstoke and Deane have hosted fundraising events and taken part in physical challenges after hearing the plight of Emmy King, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy spastic diplegia last July when she was just 20-months-old.

As reported in The Gazette, Emmy’s mother Carly researched treatment options for her daughter and came across a spinal operation called selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR), which helps sufferers walk.

But the procedure is not yet available on the NHS in the UK, so the Kings, from Lychpit, launched an appeal in January called ‘Ready Emmy Walk’ to raise the £85,000 needed to pay for the surgery in America, and fund the after care costs.

Since then, an incredible £26,000 has been raised towards the appeal.

Carly told The Gazette: “It’s amazing. We are nearly one third of the way there in less than two months which is incredible.”

All sorts of fundraising has taken place, including a Zumbathon at The Vyne Community School, in South View, a swimming challenge and numerous donations have been made by individuals, including from one elderly woman who anonymously donated £100 in cash.

Carly said: “It’s unbelievable. Now it’s about maintaining the momentum.”

The 30-year-old was also delighted to receive support from her five-year-old daughter Isla’s school – Old Basing Infants – which held a sponsored obstacle course.

Carly visited the school, in The Mead, and spoke to children about Emmy.

She said: “They wanted to give money to our appeal because they could see how it would change Emmy’s life.

They voted to do an obstacle course and they were sponsored by family and friends.”

Emmy was born eight weeks prematurely after her identical twin sister, Ava, died in the womb of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.

Doctors warned Carly and her husband, Dave, that Emmy was likely to have brain damage due to an interruption in the blood flow to her brain when her sister died.

Carly said: “Emmy has been through such a lot in her short life already.”

Although there is no cure for cerebral palsy, Carly said SDR could permanently reduce or eliminate the spasticity in her two-year-old daughter’s legs.

To donate visit justgiving.com/readyemmywalk.