THERE was something for everyone at the Wish Fest, held recently at Tintagel.

Dubbed North Cornwall’s newest music festival, Wish Fest is set over two days and nights with live music, DJs, dancing, performing, face painting, magicians and gourmet food.

There is one driving force behind Wish Fest — 12-year-old Abi Crowther from Camelford.

Abi struggles with day to day living due to her cerebral palsy. She was born 10 weeks prematurely and due to lack of oxygen at birth it has resulted in her spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy. This means daily living from buttoning a shirt to walking which many of us take for granted can be 100 times harder for her to achieve.

Abi is unable to stand alone and cannot walk without the aid of her walking frame and even then has to have someone close by. She has daily exercises to help with the increased tone and spasticity in her muscles which becomes more as she grows.

There is the chance of a life changing operation carried out by Dr Park at St Louis Hospital in America. An operation called an SDR or selective dorsal rhizotomy.

Put simply this in a operation done by making a small incision at the lower back and testing the nerves individually by using electrical currents, which then shows up which nerves are sending the ‘faulty’ signals from the brain to the muscle causing spasticity. The ‘faulty ones’ are then cut.

If successful, the spasticity would be gone and Abi’s pain due to spasticity in the muscles would be eliminated, making Abi’s wish to walk a huge step closer.

All profits from the festival are going directly to this cause.