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Suddenly, Ellis
stopped walking
By Steven Bowron
TODAY Ellis Imrie will take part in the Great Wee Scottish Walk around Dundee’s Camperdown Park on behalf of the Sunday Post’s charity appeal.
 Two weeks ago, she completed the same charity walk in Edinburgh’s Inverleith Park. And last June she did the Great Scottish Walk — though that time she was pushed round the six-mile route in a buggy by her mum, Jeanette.
That’s because even now, Ellis — named after Ellis Island in New York — is just three and a half years old.
Yet it’s still something of a marvel to her family that the wee Edinburgh girl is active at all.
The lively, happy tot, who now can run about with the best of them, is a marked contrast to the dreadfully sick hospital patient she was 18 months ago.
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 They thought Ellis had flu, but it turned out to be a bit more serious.
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Then she was unable to move her limbs at all as she lay in an intensive care ward at Edinburgh Sick Kids.
Paralysis
Ellis was suffering an acute form of paralysis brought on by a condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Only one or two people in 100,000 fall victim to GBS in a year. Across the UK that’s about 1000 people who will contract it and the average GP will only come across one or two cases in the course of a career.
It means GBS is often not the easiest of illnesses to diagnose. Yet the consequences can be fatal.
With a mortality rate of five per cent, about 50 of its victims in Britain will die this year.
Guillain-Barre Syndrome is brought on when the body is invaded by a virus, such as flu. But instead of attacking the intruder, the body’s immune system turns on the nervous system itself and tries to destroy it.
When Ellis fell ill at the end of 2005, her family’s first thought was that she had contracted flu.
“She had a temperature and was crying all the time,” says grandad Terry Crossley.
“For a week she was very ill and Jeanette and I took her to the doctor, who said it was flu. But even though she could toddle then, Ellis suddenly stopped walking.
“We thought it was more serious than what we’d been told so we went with her to the Western General Hospital where the consultant immediately told us there was something very wrong.
“She was rushed to the Sick Kid’s Hospital but still nobody knew what it was.
“The next day it was decided to give her a lumbar puncture. That itself can be a really painful experience, especially for a child.
“The results came back within an hour and that’s when she was diagnosed as having Guillain-Barre Syndrome. She was taken into intensive care at once.”
The family was then given the chilling news that there’s no cure for the condition.
Sufferers are put on a drip giving them an infusion of immunoglobulin, but this only acts as a catalyst to speed up the recovery process.
After that, it’s just a matter of waiting and hoping for the body to right itself naturally.
Whether that happens and how long it takes all depends on the severity of the disease. But if the condition spreads to the lungs there’s the added danger of respiratory failure.
Poor Ellis was in intensive care for a week with mum Jeanette sleeping on a bed alongside her each night.
As she started to get stronger she was transferred to a neurological ward where she spent long hours with physiotherapists helping restore the use of her limbs.
Gradually
In all, she was in hospital for three months. Then, gradually, the full-of-beans Ellis her family remembered began to return.
Even now she occasionally gets pins and needles in her fingers, but the little one is well on the road to recovery — and the chances of the condition recurring are slim.
Her charity walks are a big “thank you” to all the people who helped her during her illness.
It was a proud moment for the whole family when she raised £40 all by herself at the recent Great Wee Scottish Walk in Edinburgh.
And little ones like Ellis need you to help The Sunday Post Hospitals Appeal.
Your donations can make all the difference to the level of care Scotland’s sick children receive. Imagine how you’d feel if it were your child or grandchild who needed help.
If you’re quick off the mark it might not be too late to join little Ellis on her stroll around Dundee’s Camperdown Park today.
Like her, you could show support for our appeal.
Organisers have set up a late entry registration desk at the wildlife centre in the park for the walks, which set off at 11 am, noon, 1 pm and 2 pm.
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