Parents forced to turn to payday loans to fund baby daughter's head deformation treatment after NHS refuse to help

• Molly Askham had 'flat head syndrome' and her skull appeared misshapen
• She needed a £2,000 specially designed helmet to reshape her head
• The NHS would not fund the treatment as it deemed it to be 'cosmetic'
• Parents borrowed £400 in high-interest loans to pay for private treatment

By Chris Brooke

Published: 08:50 EDT, 23 May 2013 | Updated: 19:43 EDT, 23 May 2013

When Molly Askham was just ten weeks old, her parents noticed that one side of her head was much flatter than the other.

Doctors diagnosed her with a severe skull deformity called plagiocephaly or ‘flat head syndrome’ – but told Michelle and Peter Askham that treatment wasn’t available on the NHS.

Desperate to make their little girl better, Mr and Mrs Askham were forced to take out a payday loan to fund private care.

Molly Askham (pictured with mother, Michelle) developed 'flat head syndrome' as a newborn baby which meant that her skull became misshapen

Plagiocephaly affects the soft skulls of newborn babies, and in Molly’s case was so extreme that one ear appeared to have moved towards the back of her head.

Doctors told Mrs Askham, 27, and her 32-year-old husband that the problem should cure itself – but instead it got worse.

Molly's condition was so extreme that one ear appeared to have moved to the back of her head

The couple contacted a private clinic which uses a specially designed helmet to reshape the head, but the treatment cost £2,000 and a £500 deposit was required before it could begin.

With no savings to fall back on, the couple searched for moneylenders on the internet.

They took out a high-interest £200 ‘payday loan’ and another expensive £200 ‘doorstep loan’.

The family held fundraising events to obtain the rest of the money, and eventually Molly was given her helmet.

It works by holding the normal side  of the head in position while providing a ‘gap’ for the flattened side to grow into.

After wearing it 23 hours a day for four months, her head is a normal shape again – but her parents are still in debt.

Mrs Askham, whose husband has a low-paid job with a welding company, said they were making regular repayments to the doorstep lender and had had to borrow money from her parents to repay the other cash loan, which had already doubled.

She needed a £2,000 specially designed helmet to reshape her head but the NHS would not pay for the treatment as they considered it to be 'cosmetic' and doctors believed that it would correct itself

Molly's worried parents had to turn to payday and doorstep loans to fund her treatment and after she had been wearing the helmet for just 17 weeks she had recovered sufficiently that she no longer required it

The mother of two said she was ‘shocked and angry’ to discover the treatment for such a severe form of plagiocephaly was not available on the NHS because it was regarded as ‘cosmetic’ – even though breast enlargement surgery and tattoo removals were sometimes provided.

Mrs Askham, from Leeds, said: ‘Funding should be available for a deformity as bad as this.

‘It’s horrible to think of your child as being deformed, but that’s what it is.

'Her ear was not where it was meant to be and her nose was moving as well.'

These helmets do work and worked very well for Molly.

‘But it was very frightening and it seemed as if her skin was moving. She was a little girl and one ear was in a strange place.’

Molly’s head was normal when she was born five weeks prematurely last August at St James’s Hospital in Leeds, weighing 4lb 14oz. 

She spent two periods in hospital during the early weeks of her life because she developed an intolerance to cow’s milk and had meningitis.

By the age of ten weeks it was ‘very noticeable’ that one side of Molly’s head had become flat.

The local NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds Primary Care Trust was recently disbanded, but in an earlier statement on the case said: ‘The NHS does not usually fund the use of cranial remoulding orthosis for babies with plagiocephaly.

‘This is a largely cosmetic issue and in the majority of cases the condition will resolve spontaneously with advice around positioning of the baby.’

Molly's head was normal when she was born five weeks prematurely last August at St James' Hospital in Leeds, weighing 4lb 14oz

She spent her first few weeks in and out of hospital because she developed meningitis but she is now a healthy baby. Her parents are continuing to pay off the loans