Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

In 2010 my husband Lee and I discovered our son Theo was going to be born with several congenital heart defects requiring a controlled birth and immediate open heart surgery at Evelina Children's Hospital at St Thomas's in London.  In his first three months of life he in fact needed two heart operations plus a procedure on his brain to address hydrocephalus caused by haemorrhaging that he suffered whilst on heart by-pass. He will need some other operations in the future but thanks to amazing surgeons, consultants, nurses and support personnel he's currently a very content, happy chappy at 2 years old.

Our chosen charity as a family is now ECHO (Evelina Childrens Heart Organisation). Throughout the year I will organise several events (along with my very lovely and supportive friends and family!) to raise money for this wonderful cause and will keep this justgiving page live to make donating for the events nice and easy as well as enabling people outside organised events to donate!

What is ECHO?

 

ECHO supports children, and crucially the family of children who are treated at St Thomas's for Congenital Heart Defects. Our contact with parents facing scenarios many times tougher than our own really drove home the importance of the whole-family style of support provided by ECHO.

Follow this link for more information http://www.echo-evelina.org.uk/

 

Why ECHO?

They gave us excellent information when we were antenatally diagnosed to help us understand Theo’s specific condition and what it meant for our future.

They put us in touch with a Mum that had already been through it, we were both able to speak to her and ask her lots of questions– invaluable!

We attended an antenatal day specifically designed by ECHO and specialist midwives for “heart” parents. This explained to us what differences to expect from having a “normal” labour, birth and initial time with the baby.

We were shown and given a DVD which made the above very clear, we were really able to start to see how different things would be to how we had expected them – this really helped us to prepare for Theo’s arrival both emotionally and practically.

The message board/forums are great.  Now that Theo is here, so many questions keep arising that only “heart baby” mums can answer and understand.  This really helps to reduce the panic and stress about the unknown or things that are just different.

The ECHO website and magazine have really helped us to come to terms with the fact that we do have a “heart baby” and things are and will be different to how we ever imagined them to be, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing!

ECHO are training me to be a volunteer so that I can help others got through what we’ve been/are going through.  This helps to know that I can give something back, or pay it forward, whichever way you want to look at it!

Please make a contribution if you are able to or circulate this fundraiser to others who you think might be interested either by word of mouth, email or by "liking" this page on Facebook. Once a donation is made through the site it is sent directly to the charity and where possible ensures that Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer.

 

 

Thanks everyone, very much appreciate your support.