A TEENAGE girl who has Cerebral palsy has lost the use of a vital piece of exercise equipment to help build her muscle strength, because it is based at her school.

Summer Dye, from Brighton Hill, Basingstoke had been benefitting from using an indoor exercise bike at Hollywater School, in Borden, which she could use whilst sat in her wheelchair to help build strength in her arms and legs.

But the 16-year-old has been unable to attend school since March because of the pandemic, and as a result has lost out on this important daily exercise.

Her mother, Sam Bramble, said it has been tough watching her daughter lose her independence, explaining: “It helped keep her strength up in her legs and arms so she can wheel herself about in her wheelchair. She has a lot less strength and is slowly losing her strength.”

Summer had made so much progress using the bike, that she was preparing to complete the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award expedition with her school.

It has been heart-breaking for 34-year-old Sam, who also has a seven-year-old daughter, to watch Summer weaken since not being at school. So she decided to help her by launching a fundraising appeal to buy her own bike.

She said: “She’s finished school now and will be going to college in September, but they don’t have one of these bikes. Summer never got to go back to school because of Covid-19 so she has lost a lot of vital exercise she was doing daily.”

Summer, who is registered partially sighted, can’t exercise at a gym or park because of her conditions and needs to be in a safe environment to exercise with supervision.

“Summer has had to do physiotherapy and take medication all of her life to keep her moving and stop her muscles from tightening up. As she has got older she has found this more challenging and is starting to struggle to keep what little independence she has,” explained Sam, adding: “We would really love to get her a MOTOmed bike of her very own to be able to keep up her strength and keep what independence she has.”

More than £1,700 has so far been raised towards the £5,000 cost of the bike through an online fundraising appeal.

To donate visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-summer-keep-her-independence-and-strength?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR0unX-dSzdR26PU9v8p5PIk1bzrt9tLOrU1Gl0nRIDmXilBHcsPWk3zEq4.