TREK FOR JACK

Our first baby, Jack, was born on 19 October 1994 but sadly we only had our lovely son for a short while. He died on November 22 1994 after spending 5 weeks (his whole life), at Guy’s Hospital in London, after being born with a heart defect called Aortic Stenosis, which meant he had to undergo open heart surgery twice as well as other procedures. Eventually it was all too much for our poor baby and he died in our arms after we had made the agonising decision to turn off his life support machine when the doctors could do no more.

During this time we stayed just round the corner from the hospital in a large building called Ronald McDonald House, completely free of charge. This meant we could spend every day with Jack, time that turned out to be precious as we had so little of it to spend with him. The house gave us a place to laugh, cry and grieve; our own room with a direct phone line to the ward Jack was on, and space to come to terms with it all. There were washing machines, cooking facilities and for families with other children a huge playroom. A real ‘home from home’.

When Jack died we raised several thousand pounds, most of which bought a cardiac machine for the children’s intensive care ward. We did donate a small amount to Ronald McDonald House, but nowhere near enough to make up for everything they did for us.

This year Jack would have been 18, and we think about him and miss him every day. There’s no doubt we are different people because of him. Not just Clive and I, but Rebecca and Jim, who have grown up loving and missing a brother they never had a chance to meet. We all appreciate how precious life really is.

To mark Jack’s 18 birthday, and to satisfy my need to always challenge myself, Rebecca and I will begin fundraising in order to take part in a ‘Trek for Jack’. This will be a 9 day trek next July across the Tanzanian Rift Valley, home of the Masai tribesmen. It will be physically challenging, but it promises to be an amazing experience, and we will also extend our stay for 3 days so that we can volunteer at a local children’s home. To take part we need to raise £3600 EACH! This money will go to Ronald McDonald House at Guy’s in Jack’s memory to enable other parents to spend time with their desperately ill children without worrying about where they will live.

So please, friends, help us raise as much as we can towards our cause, by supporting one or more of the fundraising events we will be running, or simply donating on this page. Tell everyone you know about Jack and our story, and the wonderful facility Ronald McDonald House offers.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Sarah and Rebecca Houlding

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