A campaign to help a 10-year-old girl have the “life-changing” operation she needs to walk unaided was launched at an event in Barking.

Esha Ilyas has cerebral palsy and needs to raise £36,000 by March to pay for the surgery, physiotherapy and aftercare.

Barking and Dagenham CVS, a volunteering organisation and charity, and the Mayor of Barking and Dagenham, Cllr Hardial Singh Rai, lent their support by hosting an event to raise awareness of the campaign at the Ripple Centre, in Ripple Road, last Thursday.

Great Ormond Street Hospital doctors say Esha could benefit from a selective dorsal rhizotomy operation, but NHS England has told Esha’s parents that it would not fund the operation.

It deems the schoolgirl’s case to be “not exceptional” when measured against the criteria it uses to assess patients’ needs.

However, mum Manisha Modhvadia is determined to help make her daughter’s dreams come true.

She said: “It would change her whole life if we could make this happen.

“I read up on it, we got referred and the paediatrician said Esha met the criteria.

“The operation will make her independent and able to do the things that her friends can.

“We’ve had a lot of interest on Facebook and Twitter with the launch and we hope to make even more people aware of it.”

Esha, who uses a frame to walk and a wheelchair for longer distances, wears plaster casts on both legs and receives injections to ease her pain.

With Esha of Mortlake Road, Ilford, due to start secondary school next year, she dreams of being able to play freely with her friends in the playground.

Manisha, who said the family have raised £3,000 so far, added: “She goes to a mainstream school and she is above average in her classes but the physical side is holding her back.

“I won’t be around forever, so the operation will allow her to do things for herself and walk the hallway with her friends.”

To donate towards the cost of the operation, visit www.eshasdreamtowalk.org.uk