A year of no beer.

I like a drink. I almost drink professionally. I buy a lot of wine. A lot of whiskey. And it is a big / huge part of my social life.

On the 22nd of March I found myself in Wexham hospital with Fletcher again. Once again, he received exceptional care. Fletcher arrived on the 20th of March last year, and received wonderful care in the NICU for a week. I want to say thank you. To say thank you to the doctors and maybe help keep parents who are, and will be, going through the worry and terror we did. More importantly, we want to make sure the children are as comfortable and stress free as they could possibly be. So....

Every day I’m going to put aside the price of a beer; £6 (I know, beer in central London is a joke) and donate it to Wexham. I’m going to ask that it be used to buy colourful scrubs for the staff in the NICU and children’s wards. It was something an amazing nurse called Rosie said all of the staff wanted and they thought would have a positive impact on not just the team, the children and their parents, but their siblings too.

I’m going to not drink. But I wouldn’t be honest if I went into this thinking that I won’t drink a single day this year. So every day I drink this year, I will add £200 to the pot. (P.s this isn’t a massive cop out, we’ve a big 12 months ahead with my niece / nephew arriving, friends getting married, Fletcher’s christening and a glass of champagne may well be called upon £200 or not! Equally.... I really cannot in any way afford £200 each time I go out.... so.)

I’m not going to blast people asking to donate to this. I’m simply setting up the page so that if we are out one night and you ask why I’m gargling Diet Coke or sipping on a slime line tonic and lime, you could chose to donate the £/$/€ part of a round to Wexham. They deserve it....

This is going to be very hard. And very expensive. But really really worth it.

J x

P.s I started this on the 30th March 2018

P.p.s We've chosen Wexham Park as our charity for our golf day this year, so I thought I'd share their fund-raising goals for anyone that would like an offline conversation with them or me about ways in which they can contribute to specific targets;

£35,000 more parent sitting areas – convert old sluice room to a sitting area for parents and provide furniture and artwork to give space for parents to relax out of the ward environment as our current parent room is very small

£25,000 Parent’s rooms x4 – upgrade furniture and decoration and provide relaxing artwork for these rooms as an oasis of calm for parents during what can be an extremely stressful time and the environment not to feel hospitalised and to be more homely

£10,000 for breast pumps, to support mothers in expressing by the bedside. Expressing breastmilk for sick and premature babies is vital for their nutritional support and overall neurodevelopment of the baby


£5,000 Purchase of developmental care goods for babies such has head positioners, cot canopies, other needs of the unit for BLISS accreditation


£3,000 per year to support a video link for individual families at a time when they are anxious and away from their baby

Training for staff : developmental care training is £300 per staff member.