AN appeal to help a 13-year-old teenager with Locked-in Syndrome has hit its initial £10,000 target in only 17 days.

The first goal was achieved on Monday – only three days after the Wiltshire Times publicised the GoFundMe online appeal – with a massive £4,125 donation from Sam Love.

He generously donated the funds to help Miranda Meldrum, saying: “Hi Miranda, I have a daughter a couple of years younger than you and you so remind me of her. Never stop fighting, you deserve to be happy.”

In all, 117 people donated money – many anonymously – to help the Bradford on Avon teenager to reach her target.

Miranda’s mother, Dr Stella Meldrum, a local GP, said: “I just could not believe the total when I looked at the GoFundMe website on Monday.

“It was an incredibly generous and selfless donation from Sam Love, who made up the total to £10,000 from the £5,875 we had raised by Sunday evening.

“I don’t know Mr Love but I cannot thank him enough, as well as all the other people who have donated so generously.”

Miranda, from Westwood, had appealed for help to buy IT equipment to enable her to communicate, including spelling, drawing and playing the Minecraft computer game.

She lost the power to walk and talk after suffering a catastrophic and very rare form of brain haemorrhage on April 25 this year.

In the early hours of the morning, she woke her mother after vomiting and complaining of a very severe headache. Five minutes later, she said her hearing had gone in her right ear and her right leg had gone numb.

Dr Meldrum bundled Miranda into her car, encouraging her to keep counting to 10 as she got more and more drowsy, and rushed her into hospital in Bath, where medical experts diagnosed the brain haemorrhage after conducting a CT scan and further tests.

They showed a small tear had formed in the innermost lining of the wall of a small artery in her brain. This meant blood was able to enter the space between the inner and outer layer of the blood vessel causing a complete closure.

It resulted in Miranda suffering from Locked-in Syndrome or LIS, a condition in which the patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to a complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body.

Miranda can now only communicate by blinking her eyes and nodding. She is still unable to talk or walk. A talented singer, she hopes to recover well enough to be able to sing again.

Over the past two weeks, she has made good progress and is now able to move her left arm to wave ‘goodbye’ and her left leg. She has also started to struggle up off her hospital bed by using the upper part of her body.

Dr Meldrum has now embarked on the next stage of the appeal, by raising the target to £20,000.

“As she recovers, Miranda is going to need specialist speech, physio and occupational therapy to help her talk and walk again, as well as equipment such as a motorised wheelchair for tired times.”

To make a donation to Miranda’s appeal, go to www.gofundme.com/lis-locked-in-syndrome-aged-13