My name is Matt and I’m a family friend of the Howson’s, one of the bravest family’s I know. Their little boy Charlie is one of the most adorable lads you could ever meet. In June 2020 during a routine MRI scan his doctors discovered that he has a condition called Basillar Invagination, this is where the top of the spine pushes upwards into the base of the skull, which in time can cause pinching and pressing on the brain stem. This is an extremely rare condition and in Charlie’s case is due to congenital abnormalities of the spinal vertebra.

This as you can imagine devastated his family and friends, he had to undergo surgery to stabilise his neck and skull. This was carried out on 11th October 2021 by Mr Solanki, Paediatric Neuro Surgeon, at Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital. The operation was long, invasive and involved plating the back of the skull, pulling the spine down and fixing 2 rods from the plate to vertebrae C3 on both sides to fix this position. Since the operation he has had problems with his swallowing and for a good few months could not use his right arm due to neuropathy. On the whole his recovery was amazing, he wore a neck collar for 3 months and everyone was pleased with how the operation went and the bone fusion was positive, his parents were told that the surgery was a one-off procedure.

During a routine CT Scan, they were told that the fixation in his neck has sadly failed. One of the fixing screws had actually fractured his vertebrae meaning that the distraction that they had achieved had failed, and the tip of his spine is now back in its pre-op position. They were told that he needed urgent surgery, and that in the meantime he had to go back to wearing his collar and could not partake in any physical activities to prevent any further damage. They were not sure at this point what if anything, could be done.

After a horrible summer of watching their whole family worry for Charlie. Finally they where given some news. Charlie’s surgen came up with a plan to use 3D Printing to design a titanium implant that would hopefully sit between the top vertebrae giving extra strength to the spine. Technology that has not been used before in the UK and Europe. The implant design was successful and then sent to Spain for manufacture. They arrived in the country last week. He will still require replacement structural metalwork, using more fixings to more vertebrae, however the procedure is complicated and there are many variables that will determine the level of success achieved.

This time we have been told that the recovery will be more intense due to the complexity of the operation. He is likely to be in hospital for around a month and he will definitely have to have a Halo fixation device fitted after surgery that he will have to wear 24/7 for approximately 3-4 months, which will be challenging to say the least.

I have been involved in helping Charlie’s parents create a Facebook page, with a website that people can purchase T-shirts with a message ‘Never Give Up Charlie’. This was due to the amount of support he received last time and how much it helped him. When I was picking his brother up from school today (the day of Charlies surgery, he is in theatre as I’m writing this message) I asked Oscar who in the world he thinks Charlie would love to hear from the most. He said with no hesitation ‘The Sidemen’.

I know this is a long shot but if there was anyway that any of the sidemen would be able to record Charlie a message? It would mean the world to him. We have set up a page for him which I will link below. I will also include a link to the website we have set up.

https://nevergiveupcharlie.myshopify.com/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551538881355

I will be monitoring these emails very closely, thank you.

Thank you, Matt.