The Brainlab machine. Pic: copyright Maureen Harrison, Sick Kids Friends Foundation, 2007.

And just 12 days ago the first patient put it through its paces. Alex Muir (10), from Musselburgh, had a two-hour op under a general anaesthetic to drain fluid from a brain tumour he’s had to live with for the past seven years.
It was a race to save his sight. Fluid from the tumour was starting to form a cyst which had ballooned up and was putting pressure on his optic nerve. His vision was deteriorating and Alex was in danger of losing it altogether. 
Despite the serious nature of the surgery, he seems to have rallied brilliantly and within an hour of emerging from the theatre he had his Playstation in his hands and was, according to dad John, “being cheeky”. His vision is now back to normal.
“Veteran”
Like so many children in the Sick Kids, the Stoneyhill Primary pupil is already a “ward veteran”.
For the Muir family, the nightmare began when Alex was three and started vomiting and having terrible headaches. 
A battery of doctors initially attributed his problems to a variety of causes, including reflux and sinusitis.
But two years later, after he’d been given a barium meal, a benign brain tumour (technical name craniopharyngioma) was diagnosed. The size of a grape, it was situated near his pituitary gland.
Accompanied by his devastated parents Eira and John, Alex was whisked into the hospital for a month to have the gland removed.
Doctors assured them the op would take care of most of the tumour. But, unfortunately, because the growth had embedded itself perilously near the optic nerve it couldn’t be completely cleared.
“After coming out of hospital he was having MRI scans every three months,” explains Eira. “Then, at the end of 2003, they found the tumour was starting to grow again so he went in for radiotherapy.
Radiotherapy
“His tumour is made of a hard part and a softer, fluidy part. The radiotherapy was able to stop the hard part growing but there’s always danger the fluid will build up. The MRI scans picked up that this is happening and it needed to be drained off.
“That’s where the BrainLAB comes in. It’s able to locate where the neurosurgeon needs to go to draw it off. ”
Unfortunately for poor Alex it’s the second time he’s been hospitalised within a few weeks.
At the end of August, he went in for an operation to put two four-inch screws in each of his hips — it’s all related to the cocktail of hormone replacement medication he has to take.
“They explained it as though the ball joint was a scoop of ice cream which had come away from the cone,” says John. “He was in a lot of pain.
“Because he’s had his pituitary gland removed, he has to take hormones and steroids to help his body as he grows up and this is the sort of thing that can happen.”
Yet Alex comes across as very chipper, despite all the injections, tablets, nasal sprays, scans and operations he’s had to endure.
“I think I’ve been on every ward at one time or another,” he says.
Scary
Maureen Harrison, director of the Sick Kids Friends’ Foundation, says, “It’s so much better to have this equipment here, rather than transporting children to an adult hospital.
“Such a procedure is always a very scary experience so being able to remain within the child-friendly environment at Sick Kids is really important.
“We’d like to thank Sunday Post readers for their contribution which brought in the final £10,000.”
Lynn Miles, paediatric neurosurgeon at the Sick Kids, agrees. “The new BrainLAB machine is of real benefit to children like Alex and is a major asset to the neurosurgical department at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.”

IF YOU have a special reason for contributing to or raising funds for our appeal then we’d like to hear from you. 
It could be that you’d like to thank caring staff for the treatment they’ve provided in your hour of need. Or perhaps a relative spent time in one of Scotland’s children’s hospitals and the experience has left a lasting impression on your family’s life.
Whatever the reason, please let us know. 
We’d be delighted to share your experiences with our readers. And, who knows, it may inspire others to follow in your fund-raising footsteps.

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