22 Kids and Counting star Sue Radford shared a major update with her daughter Tillie’s health at the weekend as thousands of fans rushed in to offer their support
Sue and Noel Radford’s daughter Tillie has spent the past month recovering from a major 10-hour operation on her leg. The 16-year-old underwent a complex procedure to reconstruct her knee and further lengthen the leg back in September.
She had been living with a leg length discrepancy caused by a severe bone infection from the age of 18 months. The Radford family have been sharing updates into the teenager’s health and snaps of her recovery, with one showing Tillie lying in a hospital bed. And now after making huge progress with physiotherapy, Sue shared a promising update with fans.
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Reassuring followers Tillie was doing okay a few weeks ago, Sue now revealed she’s now able to get movement back in her knee.
Posting on the family’s Instagram account, which boasts 539,000 followers, the mum wrote: “Tillie with her gas and air mouth piece which she asked to bring home, she did AMAZING today with the procedure to have the rod removed from just below her knee.
“The surgeon is happy that she will now be able to get movement back in her knee, he’s also really happy with how the lengthening is going we are now over half way with that which is amazing. Onwards and upwards now.”
The post shows a very chuffed Tillie holding the device, along with a cartoon of juice in the other hand. She also appears to be leaving the hospital as she’s seen getting wheeled out through the car park.
Since she shared the update with fans, one wrote: “Best of luck,” while another added: “This is fantastic. Well done Tillie.” A third commented: “Oh bless her. Tillie is showing so much strength. Keep going Tillie half way through now. Sending love to you.”
And someone else chimed in: “Tillie you are a lovely girl, you’ve had a tough time but you’re ‘getting there’. Well done, your family will look after you.”
Tillie travelled to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool in September for the gruelling procedure to reconstruct her knee and lengthen the leg.
She continued her recovery in hospital with ongoing physiotherapy, with parents Sue and Noel overjoyed when they were finally able to bring Tillie home.
Last month, they posted on Facebook: “We are honestly so incredibly proud of Tillie. She has done absolutely amazing and shown so much strength and determination throughout her recovery, especially with all her physio.
“It really is a fantastic hospital [Alder Hey] and we are so grateful for everything they have done for her. Now let’s get our girl home!”
Despite a positive update with fans, Sue revealed it hasn’t been an entirely smooth journey since leaving the hospital a few weeks ago. She wrote: “Her pain got so bad we had to ring Alder Hey at 1.30am this morning as we just couldn’t do anything to help her.”
Tillie previously shared her dreams of one day becoming a figure skater with dad Noel happy to book her a private session. She told Channel 5 viewers: “I have a massive phobia of being embarrassed when there’s other people around.
“There’s a lot of days where I take a break from walking on my tiptoes when I was just watching the number of people staring. I get funny looks or whispering behind the hand about it and it just gets me down.”
