My name is Elena, and I’m asking for help for my 16-year-old daughter, Cinderella. She has been suffering with severe knee pain for over a year. After trying everything — physical therapy, hip surgery in past 3 months,medications, and injections — her condition has only gotten worse.

Her MRI shows high-grade cartilage damage in her knee, and her orthopedic surgeon at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush says she now urgently needs:

• Knee arthroscopy

• CarTiHeal cartilage restoration

• Possible meniscus repair

Without this surgery, she will continue living in constant pain and may face long-term damage.

It breaks my heart to watch my child limp, struggle to walk, and miss out on the active life she used to love. I’m doing everything I can, but the surgery and recovery costs are more than I can manage alone.

Please help give my daughter the chance to walk, run, and live without pain again.

Any amount helps, and sharing this means the world to us.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

— Elena