{"id":727108,"date":"2026-06-10T08:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/727108\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T08:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:44:10","slug":"treadmill-challenge-for-child-with-rare-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/727108\/","title":{"rendered":"Treadmill challenge for child with rare disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nursery held a fundraiser for a four-year-old girl with a rare degenerative brain disease.<\/p>\n

Teraysa, from Christchurch, in Dorset, was diagnosed with Batten disease in December 2024 after having a number of seizures.<\/p>\n

Staff members took part in the Three Peaks Challenge – in which people climb the highest mountains in England, Wales and Scotland – but on treadmills, to help pay for the equipment she needs.<\/p>\n

Participant Sally Hobbs said: “It does cost a lot of money to meet her needs so the money that we raise will go towards things that the family do need.”<\/p>\n

Batten disease is an incurable illness likened to childhood dementia. It affects only about 40 children in the UK and is terminal.<\/p>\n

It affects the nervous system, causing seizures, visual impairment and mobility loss.<\/p>\n

The life expectancy for the condition is 10 to 12 years for most patients.<\/p>\n

‘Really hard’<\/p>\n

Mum Stacey said with Teraysa’s condition worsening she wanted her remaining time to be memorable.<\/p>\n

But she said having a child with Batten disease was “really hard”.<\/p>\n

“In the last seven months her core strength seems to be going,” Stacey said.<\/p>\n

“She is now in a feeding chair and she has to have a walking frame.<\/p>\n

“She did have a gene replacement for one of her eyes, because with Batten disease you do go blind.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Jakki (left) and Sally (right) took on the Three Peaks Challenge on a treadmill [BBC]<\/p>\n

Dad Mike said the family and nursery wanted to build as many memories with Teraysa before it was too late.<\/p>\n

“Things like taking her away, whether it’s to Haven Holiday Parks or Paultons Park to go and see Peppa Pig World, or anything like that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s before her dementia sets in, and then she’s not really going to know what’s what, who’s who, and everything else.”<\/p>\n

Sally, along with Jakki Spicer, completed the challenge on treadmills in the nursery over two days.<\/p>\n

Sally said: “We can’t obviously take the whole nursery to the three peaks, but we know the families climb mountains every single day.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a hard 24 hours for us, but we are very aware the family climb that mountain every single day of the week.”<\/p>\n

Related storiesRelated links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nursery held a fundraiser for a four-year-old girl with a rare degenerative brain disease. Teraysa, from Christchurch,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5681,49,48,262304,84,262305,262306],"class_list":["post-727108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-batten-disease","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-degenerative-brain-disease","tag-health","tag-sally-hobbs","tag-three-peaks-challenge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}