Nursery school teachers, classmates' parents and members of the community have rallied behind four-year-old Ashlee Kelly, born with a brain disorder that has left her mother with more than $100,000 in medical bills.

Doctors discovered Ashlee had hydrocephalus when she was three months old and performed surgery immediately.

She was doing well until this past July.

Ashlee's mother, Renee Brady-Kelly, said her daughter took so ill last summer the child nearly died.

And Mrs. Brady-Kelly's insurance would not cover her daughter because she had recently changed jobs, which meant she would have to wait for a year to benefit from the plan.

"Ashlee had three major operations back to back,'' Mrs. Brady-Kelly said.

"When she got sick, her symptoms were severe migraine headaches and vomiting, and she was feeling lethargic. We had to rush her to Boston Children's Hospital. They operated and corrected the malfunction. We were released and we came home but within 48 hours she got sick again.

"Every time she took sick I had less time to get her to the hospital to save her life due to the fact that this illness can cause you to fall into a coma.

We were flown back out. They operated again and she stayed in the hospital for another week. It was an awful experience.'' But the nightmare was not over.

They came home the second time and Ashlee got sick again, and she had to be air ambulanced out again. This time the doctors in Boston planted a little device called a VP shunt in her head which drains the water from her brain.

"This is the closest I came to losing her and I never ever want to get that close again.'' On how little Ashlee is doing now Mrs. Brady-Kelly said: "She is doing pretty good ... she has to have her hospital check-ups on a regular basis.'' She added she could not understand why her insurance company was unable to help with Ashlee's bills.

"I was told that I have to wait a year before I can get her insured and they do not cover pre-existing illnesses until then.'' But, she said, along with the director of Wee Learn Nursery Pauline Bissell there should be some sort of provision made for a case of emergency concerning life or death.

"Teacher Bissell met with the Premier, and Health Minister Harry Soares but nothing could be done. Ashlee has to be treated abroad because she can not be treated locally. If she could be treated here Government would have helped pay for her bills,'' Mrs. Brady-Kelly said.

Ms Bissell, along with teachers, parents, and the community were able to raise close to $20,000 through car washes, bake sales and a walk-a-thon to help with Ashlee's bills.

Mrs. Brady-Kelly added: "When teacher Bissell came to me to let me know they wanted to help it made me realise that there are still so many people who care and are good.

"I was so overwhelmed by the amount of community support. I cried because this is something I knew I had to deal with but when someone offers to help and are genuinely concerned I couldn't believe it. I am very grateful. "I really thank teacher Bissell for her support.'' Ms Bissell said, "The nursery got Ashlee registered as a charity and we started with a bake sale, and car wash and then we had a walk-a-thon in October and through those efforts we have gotten about $20,000,'' Ms Bissell said.

She added: "The parents were very helpful, it really was a collaboration between the parents and teachers.

"We felt the need to help in some way because of the expenditure and the fact that Ashlee's mother is a single parent. The parents realised that would be a large amount of money because she had to be sent away.'' On the issue of insurance Ms Bissell said: "It stunts the parents. Ashlee's mother is trying to improve her lifestyle and she has to be able to have some portability of insurance, that really needs to be looked into, there seems to be a loophole somewhere.'' "Overall we felt the need to see what we could do it seems so little compared to the overall costs but at least we did something, we are now looking into other ways in we can help.'' Ms Bissell also said the money also went towards purchasing air ambulance insurance which will cover her from now until the end of June in case she needs to get her out of the Island in case of emergency.

FUND RAISER FNR