A father will be trekking Mount Kilimanjaro for a children’s hospital that has treated his three-year-old daughter who suffered a brain tumour which caused epilepsy – sometimes as many as 40 seizures a day.
Neve after her surgery
Cliff Targett praised Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London for a recent operation on daughter Neve where they removed the tumour in her left temporal lobe, which was causing the seizures.
The father-of-two, who owns his own electrical company INL Electrical, said it was horrible when Neve began to fit aged nine months. He and wife Lauren, 32, made regular trips to see doctors to get a diagnosis, while looking after their other daughter India, five.
“They got progressively worse. At the beginning we thought she’s not breathing and that she was choking on something. She was having fits. They got worse in severity over two years,’’ said Mr Targett, 32, of School Road in Bursledon.
“It was stressful. It’s not nice seeing your child fitting and you don’t know what’s going on and there’s no reason for it. It felt endless.”
Neve was in and out of hospital and was being misdiagnosed, said Mr Targett. Eventually last year, Neve was finally diagnosed through an MRI scan to have a brain tumour and since the charity-funded hospital performed the surgery two months ago Neve has become a whole new person.
“She hardly ever laughed and she just cried and slept before,” he said. “Since the operation, she’s honestly just a different child. She’s happy, it’s really good. I can’t really explain the difference.
“I just wanted to do something for the hospital. I can’t donate a lump sum myself. But I wanted to say thank you.
“While there she met Russell Brand. Not that she knew who he was. It was good for the parents. It is difficult being in there obviously, but when he came in with Sheridan Smith it lifted everyone. He’s really nice and played with Neve and her toys.”
Now Mr Targett is running and doing weights to prepare for the trek in February, which he is looking forward to.
Mr Targett often does sub-contract work for Tony Wright’s electrical company in Park Gate.
(l to r) Cliff Targett, comedian Russell Brand, Neve, Lauren and Cliff’s sister Becky
Mr Wright has known the family for 10 years and wanted to help them to support GOSH.
So the 44-year-old managing director at IDC Electrical based in Duncan Road has organised a charity night at The Concorde Club, Eastleigh on October 5.
“I know what he’s been through. I understand what he’s been through over the past three years with Neve,” said Mr Wright.
“He’s not the sort of person to ring round asking for money. He’s doing Kilimanjaro; he’s doing the hard thing. I couldn’t do that. But I do know lots of business people in the area, so this is what I can do.”
It is hoped that about 350 people will attend the event, from 7.30pm to 2am.
There will be a DJ and Saints star Matt Le Tissier will be hosing the auction and has also provided a signed copy of his autobiography as a prize.
Mr Wright has urged more people to donate prizes for the raffle and to do so to contact him at tony@idcsouthern.co.uk.
To donate money to Cliff’s fundraiser visit www.justgiving.com/Cliff-Targett1.