Marylene ready for yet another trip...to UK hospital

Every year, Marylene Debono's mother calls The Times to request assistance to raise funds for the treatment of her daughter's neuromuscular condition, in the UK.

Every year - even twice - the girl, who has been paralysed since birth, has to travel to Hammersmith Hospital to be assessed by doctors.

Miss Debono from Zejtun, now 18, is mentally normal and would appear to be leading a normal life... were it not for her lack of mobility, the result of being born with the bilateral dislocation of the hips.

Her mother's call has almost come to be expected at this time of the year. Ms Debono does not beg, although her situation could be described as desperate; neither is she embarrassed to ask for help as she knows this is one of the only vehicles through which she can raise the money she requires; and her gratitude is heartfelt even if she has to make a number of phone calls before she actually gets what she needs.

Every conservative treatment in her post-natal phase failed to realign her daughter's hips - a situation that was later found to be due to a neuromuscular condition, which has similar symptoms to muscular dystrophy, explained the doctor under whose care she has been since birth.

As a baby, the girl was sent to Hammersmith Hospital in the UK for further assessment and has since attended the hospital almost twice a year.

She is due for another visit at the end of this month - a visit that could last about two weeks, depending on the situation, and that could cost the family about Lm3,000, although the government is this year footing the hospital bill.

Callipers, which Miss Debono uses, could cost Lm1,400... and if new ones are needed, they are needed, her mother says.

The fact that her father is unemployed, having been certified unfit to carry out strenuous work, does not make the many medical expenses any easier to cope with. The Debono family is once again appealing for donations, which can be made to HSBC account number 564268828, or sent to her mother, Angele Debono, at 15, Triq Lorenzo Gafà, Zejtun.