Anna Drysdale – update from July’s Feature Article

We have had some updates on the Drysdale family from Anna’s father, Ian.

“Further to the recent article in the Second Rising, I’m now very pleased to advise that Anna has completed the fifth and final round of her immunotherapy treatment at the MSK hospital in New York and the excellent news is that all her subsequent scans and tests are perfect.

The other great news is that her sister, Ellen, has also now successfully had her spinal operation (4-5 hours) at the Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital in Dallas to help cure her of her scoliosis and she is recovering well from the same.”

Then, justwhen we thought the family were at last starting to bounce back from all the stresses and strains which they have had to face in recent months, we received this message:

“Brethren, disaster here yesterday! Anna was having a swimming lesson and was doing amazingly until she decided at the end of the lesson to jump into the pool and in a split second aught her poorly arm badly on the side of the pool.  She was clearly in lots of pain so we took her to Scottish Rite hospital where the X-ray showed that she had broken her bad arm!

She’s been in a splint with pain medication working well. The swimming was for physiotherapy; it was her third session and she’d just learned to swim and was really pleased with herself.”

It’s obviously incredible bad luck, but Anna is again demonstrating her phenomenal resilience and strength of character, recovering quickly.  Last week, we heard from Ian again:

“Both girls are doing really well thanks!  Anna’s arm is still delicate, but improvement is seen every day.”

It’s certainly been a very tough time overall for Ian, Keeley and the family, so hopefully they’ll soon now be able to return to the UK with two healthy children!