A DEDICATED family have come together to raise £100,000 so their daughter can get "life-changing" spinal surgery and live a "normal life again".

Kathy and Mark Jones from Bracknell are reaching out to the local community to help raise the cost of the treatment for their 17-year-old daughter Lizzie.

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The family travelled to Barcelona for a consultation with specialist neurosurgeon Dr Gilete in November as the major operation is not covered by the NHS in England as the treatment is too new.

As well as this, the cost of the spinal surgery is £100,000 and the family need to raise this by March 2020 as they are unable to afford the amount themselves.

Lizzie Jones said: "Living with my illness, means I spend 23 hours per day in bed, lying down with limited light and sound due to sensory overload.

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"I have been limited to one hours of activity per day, which makes attending school very difficult and means I’ve had a lonely and rather unconventional teenage life – mostly spent in bed."

The family are working with UK charity Tree of Hope to give confidence to donations and have so far raised more than 10,000, having launched just three weeks ago.

The 17-year-old added: "I long to be able to be a normal young woman, to study and ‘do life’ as other people do.

"I have the same dreams I’ve always had of being a paramedic but they remain just dreams due to my illness.

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"There is now hope, though, for me to return to something of a more normal life."

Lizzie has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) which is a devastating multi-system disease that causes dysfunction of the neurological, immune, endocrine and energy metabolism systems.

Visit: https://www.treeofhope.org.uk/elizabeth-jones to donate to the fundraising page.