UPDATE!

We have now raised a staggering £64,000 (our grand total may be followed at this link https://www.justgiving.com/remember/407805/James-Shaw). We have now paid for one new ‘Sophie’ ventilator for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in James’ name and are well on our way to buying the second (we need £107,000 in all).

Sophie ventilators are used to support children who need Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). ECMO is a form of breathing support that acts like an artificial lung, adding oxygen to the blood and continuously pumping it around the body. Sick newborns cannot travel with an ECMO machine, so they need special breathing support so that they may be retrieved safely from other hospitals to GOSH. THESE VENTILATORS WILL SAVE THE LIVES OF PATIENTS WHO PREVIOUSLY MAY NOT HAVE SURVIVED TRANSPORT ON CONVENTIONAL VENTILATION.

One of the Sophie ventilators we are purchasing will be used by the Children’s Acute Transfer Service (CATS) team bringing sick newborns to GOSH, while the other will be used within GOSH.

As an added incentive for you to donate money, if I can raise more than £500 for GOSH I will run the Royal Parks Half dressed as a Tyranosaurus Rex! 

Here's a bit more about Jimmy by his mummy, Emily Shaw:

James William Shaw was born on 21st September 2016, followed
three minutes later by his sister Isabel. Both twins were thriving at home, our
18-month old Alexa was just beginning to understand that she was an older
sister and my husband, Pete, and I were excitedly looking to the future with as
a family of five. Then, at just 5.5 weeks old Jimmy became suddenly,
unexpectedly and devastatingly unwell with presumed sepsis (an uncontrolled
infection) and a complicating blood clot to his bowel. Despite the determined
efforts of our local hospital, the Children's Acute Transfer Service (CATS) and
ultimately Great Ormond Street Hospital Intensive Care Unit, Jimmy could not be
saved. He died in our arms two days after becoming unwell, covered in the kisses
of his mummy and daddy, who told him how loved he was. It is beyond words how
traumatised we were left by seeing Jimmy so desperately sick and how bereft his
death left us, our hearts were truly broken. Then, three weeks after Jimmy
died, and just two days after we had buried him, his twin sister Izzy too
became unwell with an unrelated condition, we were just seemingly that unlucky.
Within 24 hours Izzy was undergoing emergency, life-or-death surgery at Great
Ormond Street. We genuinely believed we were going to lose a second child that
day. Thankfully Izzy's surgery was successful and she recovered.

I am a hospital doctor and I can hand-on-heart honestly say that in my 11 years experience as a clinician I have never seen such a unanimous, continuous and determined effort and bloody-minded resolve to save a life as with Jimmy. The medical staff gave blood, sweat and tears to save my little boy, he received the best possible care in the world, by the most humane doctors and nurses I have ever met and for that I am beholden to them. Beyond the world-class care both he and Izzy received at GOSH, our family received unbounded care and kindness, practical support (such as neighbouring accommodation) and pastoral support that continues to this day (including bereavement counselling). GOSH gave us our very best hope of saving Jimmy, saved the life of Izzy and took extremely delicate and humane care of us parents in the process.