Lana’s Story

Meet Nickki and Lana….

Lana is an 8 year old local girl who has battled with medical conditions, including cerebral palsy, epilepsy and developmental delay, since she was born needing withdrawal from drug and alcohol addiction.  With an outlook that was thought to be pretty bleak and doctors doubted Lana would be able to walk, talk or eat independently. Social services had the difficult task of finding her an suitable adoptive home.

Nickki tragically lost her own daughter, Sara, in 2011. After finding her way through her grief, she knew that she wanted to continue caring. As her house was already fully adapted for children with additional needs and disabilities, Nickki decided to look into foster and respite care.

After their first meeting, Nickki instantly fell in love with Lana. Initial fostering turned to adoption and, when Lana was 3 years old, Nickki officially became her Mummy and created her forever home.

Thanks to the wonderful combination of Nickki’s love, care and support along with Lana’s incredible strength and determination, she not only eats and communicates, but also attends school!

Wanting to continue her phenomenal  progress, Nickki is started to investigate SDR surgery which could see Lana potentially walking on her own. This is when they got in contact with The Eight Foundation.

Nickki told us about a piece of equipment called an ‘IKAN brace’, which would help Lana gain strength before and after her surgery and, in the longer term, allow Lana to stand. We purchased the brace without hesitation and made a visit to see how Lana was doing…

We could not believe our eyes as we saw Lana standing unaided at the kitchen sink in her brace washing up! The more time Lana spends in this brace the stronger she will become and Nickki hopes she will able to start taking steps in the brace soon.

“I honestly can’t thank The Eight Foundation enough for supporting Lana” says Nickki. “The IKAN brace is a complete game changer for Lana, making such a difference to our lives already. To see Lana standing and doing the washing up (she loves to wash up!) is incredible.  I’m sure this brace is going to do amazing things for her… thank you just doesn’t seem enough!“

We are so proud to help Lana on her journey to walking.

If you would like to as well, please visit and share Nickki’s fundraising page, where she is trying to raise £45,000 to privately fund Lana’s Surgery (she does not qualify for it on the NHS) at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Lanasdesiretoaimhigher?fbclid=IwAR0IXgaESsp4J01P2WWDR9pW-BI-fhhTg_WcN8OYzu8gln1zHakpeomOtBI