A FUNDRAISING campaign has been launched to help a five-year-old girl to walk.

Little Zara Watkins has a rare genetic condition known as Coffin-Sirus syndrome (CSS), which affects her whole central nervous system.

“She has to work incredibly hard to learn each new movement – such as using her hands to hold objects or sitting,” says her mum, Catherine.

“With a lot of intervention, many of the CSS children from around the world learn to walk by the age of seven. We want to give Zara every opportunity to do this too.

“She is on the more severe end of CSS, meaning her digestive system and other vital organs are also affected, so sadly she is often very ill.

“But despite these many challenges she tries really hard in her therapy sessions, so we’re hoping to increase the time that she has access to a specialist therapist to give her the best possible chance of walking.”

Zara currently has one hour a week of physiotherapy with PTKids UK, but the hope is to up that to two hours.

Catherine and husband Steve, an engineering manager, have launched an online fundraising page in a bid to help cover the cost of the extra therapy and to assist with buying special equipment. The target is to raise £3,210.

“My friends love watching Zara’s progress and so many people wanted to do something to help so we thought why not set-up a fundraising page?” said Catherine, 39.

Within a few days of the Just Giving page being launched, Catherine was approached by Keighley-based Revive Dancers who are staging a sponsored two-hour danceathon to raise funds.

“We were so happy and thankful when we learned about the danceathon as Zara also loves music and scooting around to it!” said Catherine. “It’s a really tough challenge that the little ones have set themselves.”

And fundraising is also planned by the running group Trail Snails, which is holding a virtual Rainbow 5k event on Saturday, January 23 – visit racebest.com/races/quvha for more details.

Although Zara – a pupil at Phoenix Special School in Keighley – was only diagnosed with CSS last year, Catherine says she and Steve had always known that something was not right.

“She was having seizures – but we didn’t know the cause,” said Catherine. “She had mobility issues too and wasn’t achieving her milestones, such as sitting and standing.

“It was a relief in some ways when we got the diagnosis. No one else locally has the condition but we are now hooked into a support network.”

To donate, visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zaraswishtowalk.