A Fife schoolgirl is set to undergo a potentially life-saving brain operation just weeks after the president of UFC donated £10,000 towards her treatment.
Myla Ray, 7, from Kirkcaldy – daughter of former UFC fighter Stevie Ray – has a severe form of epilepsy and sometimes suffers dozens of seizures in a day.
Without the urgent surgery, which will take place at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh on Wednesday, doctors have warned she could die in her sleep.
It comes after Stevie and his wife Natalie set up a £100,000 fundraiser to have the operation done privately.
GoFundMe raises more than £118,000 for operation
UFC chief Dana White – who has an estimated net worth of $500 million – was among those who supported the cause.
The family said they were “overwhelmed” when they raised more than £118,000 in less than two days.
They had hoped this would pay for private medical treatment, but Stevie says soon after the fundraiser closed, the NHS offered to bring the date of Myla’s surgery forward from November to May.
After consulting with a private medical team in London, who said they would struggle to perform the operation any sooner, it was decided that surgery on the NHS was the best decision for Myla.
Stevie and Natalie – who have three other children – have since offered to refund everyone who contributed to the fundraiser.
But those who donated have urged the family to use the money to cover the cost of any potential future treatments, or on a holiday for Myla.
Stevie says it is a “weird situation” and they are still trying to decide what to do.
‘Lots of things could go wrong – it is pretty scary’
Myla suffers from frontal lobe epilepsy – which has seen her suffer thousands of seizures since she was first diagnosed in 2019.
She was even placed into an induced coma in March 2020, when she took more than 700 fits in a day.
Ahead of her operation, Stevie told The Courier: “The surgery is close to the motor part of her brain and if any part of that starts bleeding or gets damaged, Myla will become paralysed.
“There is also obviously a chance of death because they are working on her brain.
“It is pretty scary.”
Myla’s family have been told there is a 50-60% chance that the six-hour operation will cure her.
Stevie, 33, said: “We are obviously hoping that it goes well.
“To be honest I am just blocking it out a little bit.
“I can’t control what happens, I have put my faith into the people that know what they are doing.
“They have done it before – they are the specialists.
“I am trying to stay positive, but the negatives and the anxieties do creep in a little bit.”
Myla will spend five days recovering in hospital following the operation and it is hoped her skull will heal fully within six months.
Stevie who competes in the PFL, has been professionally fighting in mixed martial arts since 2010.
He is currently at training camp in Bathgate as he prepares to compete in the second fight of the PFL Million Dollar Tournament next month.
He narrowly missed out on the $1 million prize last November when he was knocked out of the lightweight championship finals in New York.
