Thanks for visiting our team fundraising page.
We've set up a teampage to enable us to raise money for more than one cause. You'll see our fundraising target on the right. Your donation can really help us smash this goal.
My second child, Jasper Eric Hawkesford was born on 16th July 2014 at Warwick hospital, weighing 8lb 2oz. Sadly, mine and Jon's beautiful little boy and Tessy's perfect baby brother was only to live for seven hours. We were unaware at the time, but Jasper had internal abnormalities that caused him to have extremely underdeveloped lungs. He could never have survived.
During this time Jasper, myself and my whole family were cared for with skill, care, dignity and compassion by the entire team of staff from delivery suite and SCBU. They worked tirelessly in attempts to save Jasper and when it became apparent he was not going to live, they facilitated a beautiful, calm and loving environment for us to say goodbye to our son as he died in my arms. The staff allowed and encouraged us to make some magical, priceless memories, taking hundreds of photographs and having our family (including 3 year old Tessy) meet Jasper and share in the sorrow but also the joy of him. We will treasure every detail of that time forever. Nothing ever was too much trouble for them, despite the fact the department was very busy. In short, our care was and continues to be a huge positive in an incredibly negative situation.
The staff's ability to provide such fantastic care is all the more commendable due to the uniqueness of my story. The staff that I speak so fondly of are, in fact, my friends and colleagues. I am a midwife at Warwick hospital. I have worked alongside these people for the past 11 years, knowing what a special unit it is, staffed by some of the best midwives, nurses, doctors and support staff. I have always known what a great job they do, often under appreciated and in very difficult situations, but now I know it from the other side. I cannot underestimate how difficult it was for them all to provide my care when they were so emotionally involved and yet they remained so professional, and in the midst of feeling that the world had stopped still as mine did, they continued to provide their usual standard of uncompromising care for all the other families on the department. In the aftermath of this terribly hard time in our lives we are receiving help not only from my colleagues at Warwick hospital but also two very special charities. The first of which is Sands (stillbirth and neonatal society). They provide memory boxes for families following stiillbirths and neonatal deaths, practical information in the form of leaflets regarding telling children, support for fathers, employment entitlements etc. They also have a website offering befrienders and a forum enabling people like us to share with others who have been through something similar. They also conduct vital research into stillbirth and neonatal deaths with the aim of preventing uneccessary deaths and many other valuable services. The other organisation helping us is Edward's Trust. They are a charity based in Birmingham. This charity was set up in 1989 by parents of a boy named Edward Dent who died aged 7 years. Edward's Trust support children and families during serious illness and bereavement. Jon, Tessy and myself have accessed their excellent counselling services and know first hand the incredible work they do. We plan to organise and take part in several fundraising events over the coming months and years in memory of Jasper and in order to raise money for Warwick maternity unit and SCBU, Sands and Edward's Trust as without them and our incredible friends and family this experience would feel impossible to get through. Please help us support one, two or all of these causes if you can and enable something good to come from this experience.
Lastly, Why Jasper's Rainbow? There were an unusual amount of rainbows in England during the summer of 2014. The first of which shone spectacularly directly over Warwick hospital during the brief time that Jasper was in the world. He is our rainbow: here fleetingly, filling the world with his wonder. Holly Jon and Tessy Hawkesford xxxx
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