Shabnam Nazir was shocked when she recently returned home to find the trees and plants in the custom garden designed for her 12-year-old wheelchair-bound daughter Amelia had been cut down.
After being nominated by a friend, famous gardener Alan Titchmarsh visited his home in Barnstone Vale last summer to complete a garden makeover for popular ITV show Love Your Garden.
It was then shown in December.
Police are now chasing the vandals, who they say poured the corrosive liquid on the trees and plants and trampled on part of a wall.
Shabnam is not sure when the targeted attack took place because she was at Amelia’s bedside at Leeds General Infirmary after the teen came chillingly close to losing her life in February.
She went into cardiac arrest and was put on a ventilator for two weeks.
But after coming through, Amelia had to undergo major surgery after her intestines became twisted.
Since then, doctors have had to remove 80 percent of her intestines, meaning she can never eat normal food again.
This means that Amelia now needs to be fed intravenously through a central line in her breast.
Shabnam is being trained by medical staff so she can administer the nutrients at home, a delicate procedure that can easily lead to life-threatening infections like sepsis.
She told the Express: “I was hardly at home because Amelia was in intensive care for so long.
“I just went home to get some little things and I noticed the garden.
“It looked like someone put something on the trees because they were all dead.
“I don’t know if it was some kind of chemical because the plants had also died. They had also torn down part of the wall.
“Under the circumstances, it seems pretty disgusting.
“The garden was made for Amelia so it’s amazing how anyone could do that.
“Don’t you have a heart?
“I’m absolutely disappointed and I don’t want Amelia to see it that way.
“Hopefully we’ll be home for the summer so I want to try and fix it so she never has to find out.
“Even before everything that happened earlier this year, she was very housebound, so having that garden was brilliant for her.
“She was often sick and couldn’t go out, so we needed it.
“It was just a nice little place for her, she absolutely loves it.”
Police have said patrols are being stepped up in the Pinders Heath area of Wakefield and are asking anyone with information to come forward.
Shabnam added: “We have no idea who would have done it.
“It’s just so stressful with everything that’s going on and now we have to deal with it.
“If there is anyone who could help us, that would be great.”
The recent vandal attack isn’t the first time Shabnam and Amelia have been targeted.
In 2016, they suffered a setback when heartless thieves broke into her home and ransacked it, taking away a safe containing jewelery and more than £5,000 in cash to be spent on Amelia’s ongoing treatment.
Amelia suffers from cerebral palsy and progressive bowel failure and will need specialist care throughout her life.
When she was just three, the NHS said they could not fund a breakthrough therapy, Advanced Bio-mechanical Rehabilitation (ABR) – a technique that relaxes body muscles to reduce the effects of paralysis.
Shabnam, who left her job to look after Amelia full-time, said she had to find £5,000 a year to pay for the treatment. In 2017, Shabnam launched another fundraiser, this time hoping to scrape together £9,000 to help Amelia buy an adjustable bath.
It came after she successfully applied for a disability facilities grant to create a bedroom, wet room and play area for Amelia on the ground floor of her home, but didn’t cover the specialty bathroom she needed. The goal was achieved again and the bath was installed in December 2017.
Then last year, after being nominated by a friend, they were chosen as worthy recipients of the new garden, courtesy of Alan Titchmarsh’s Love Your Garden.
This included creating wider paths for Amelia’s wheelchair and a swing.