THOUSANDS of pounds were raised at a Stourbridge tea party which helped increase awareness for a teen’s rare neurological condition.

The family of Summerhill School pupil Megan Bradford, 14, held the event at Scary Canary The Venue with a goal of raising vital funds to purchase the teenager, who suffers from Friedreich's Ataxia, a power assisted wheelchair.

Megan was diagnosed with the condition July and over the past 18 month has seen the condition deteriorate her lower and upper body coordination.

Ataxia is a neurological condition that affects balance, speech, and co-ordination. It is progressive, meaning it gets worse with time, until people become entirely dependent on others for all their needs.

The condition, which currently has no cure, has also affected her balance and ability to walk that it has now got to the point where she requires the help of crutches or her manual wheelchair to get around.

Her step-father, Mike Rutherford, said: “In October 2014, Meg broke her ankle and lower leg while dancing and it was only when her rehabilitation was notably slower than expected that alarm bells began to ring.

“She quickly became unsteady on her feet and was referred to Birmingham Children's Hospital for tests and then onto The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Othopeadic Hospital, in Oswestry.

“During this time she became more and more unstable and easily fatigued and was having regular falls which led to her having to use crutches and eventually a wheelchair in order to go any distance safely.”

The event saw more than 300 people through the doors of the Stourbridge town centre venue, and the £2,600 of donations will now be split between the support charity Ataxia UK and Megan’s ‘Hotwheels’ fund.

Megan’s mother, Louan Rutherford, said: “We are over the moon with how well the event went. It was a really good afternoon and so busy.

“Scary Canary was a perfect venue for our event and they, alongside Plyvine Catering and the musicians Jess Silk, PTR Williams, Esther Turner, Kyle Parsons and Alex Lowe, who all gave their time, talents and services free of charge, were brilliant.

“At the moment we’ve not got another fundraising event like this planned as it took a lot of work to organise, but there are a few local businesses who have said they would like to raise money for us which is brilliant of them.

“But we will definitely do something in the future, even after we raise enough money for Meg’s chair.

“It was such a good day and it just made us keener to keep raising money and awareness for the charity.”

As importantly for Louan, the event was also able to make people aware of the condition, as well as the charity’s borough support group which was recently set up in Dudley.

She added: “A number of people came who did not know anything about the condition and even some who have the condition but didn’t know there was a support group here in Dudley, so we were able to get a few more people aware of what help there is for it locally.”

The group meets monthly at The Village Hotel, in Castlegate Park, and anyone who has ataxia, as well as those affected by the condition, or would like to find out more about it, can attend.

For more information, including group meeting dates and times, visit www.ataxia.org.uk