14-month-old Carenza Dealey got a visit from BBC Three Counties presenter Big George after he and other members of the local press helped to organise a vital operation for her.  | | Carenza with mum Yvette |
Carenza was born 14 weeks prematurely in April 2004, with a hole in the heart. Her poor state of health continued to worsen and the desperate need of surgery grew ever more imperative. But the problem was a severe lack of paediatric beds and her treatment had previously been cancelled three times. An original operation in May was cancelled because of bed shortages at Oxford's John Radcliffe hospital, and two further operations were cancelled in June. Carenza was finally operated on at the end of June after her parents Yvette and Garry contacted the BBC Three Counties Breakfast Show for Buckinghamshire and the Bucks Free Press. Less than 48 hours after that call, Yvette called Big George's show at 6.45am en route to the John Radcliffe Hospital with Carenza, where the youngster would undergo the first of three major operations. George recently visited the little girl in the children's ward at High Wycombe General, where she has been sent to recuperate. He said that her story had really touched both his team and his listeners. "Some days a call comes into the Bucks Breakfast Show, which touches everyone's soul" he said. | "Some days a call comes into the Bucks Breakfast Show, which touches everyone's soul." | | Big George |
"Such was Yvette Dealey's, a Mum at her wits end over her 13-month-old daughter's need of a vital operation, which had just been cancelled for the third time. "Yvette called the show one Tuesday morning and spoke movingly about her little girls grave condition and their day to day struggle to get treatment" he continued. "Buoyed up by the truly overwhelming response the item received, the whole production team got straight on to various administrators, MPs, patient's forums and Whitehall pen pushers, in fact anyone who could help us make sense of just WHY a
baby girl couldn’t get an operation." Carenza has now undergone three separate operations and is due to have a final one later this month. Visiting her in hospital, Big George expressed his joy at her progress. "She's a far cry from the frail little mite we knew at the beginning of the summer" he said. "She’s not out of the woods though, but along with Dad Garry, we’re all praying for a very merry Christmas in the Dealey house this year." | 
