We are Harry’s Hikers and we are climbing Mount Snowdon to raise funds for Southampton Neonatal Unit. This will be collected through the Ickle Pickles charity, who will ensure the money goes to the right place and will be used to purchase important equipment for the unit to help sick and early babies.

Harry was born in July 2020, at 29 weeks due to Hannah being extremely ill with HELLP Syndrome. He spent 6 weeks in NICU, and despite having his set-backs with needing oxygen masks, feeding tubes and a blood transfusion, the main thing he needed was to grow, as he was only 1 kilo exactly (2lb 2oz) when he was born- our little ‘bag of sugar’ baby. 

As well as being 11 weeks early, Harry was born during extremely challenging times due to lockdown. Hannah and Alex were the only two able to visit Harry, but then they couldn’t be at his crib-side at the same time, so a lot of firsts, such as bath, bottle, moving from incubator to bassinet and seeing his face ‘tube free’ for the first time, had to be captured by photograph or on FaceTime, so neither missed out on these special milestones. However, when he came home, he was able to see Hannah and Alex mask-free and together! Family were then finally able to meet the little dude, but restrictions were still in place and continually changing, so masks were still worn and most meetings were outside. 

Now we’re almost 2 years on and Harry is thriving. He is a very chatty, smiley, cheeky toddler, who may still be tiny - waddling around in his 9-12 month clothes - but he is mighty and has overcome challenges and smashed his developmental milestones (even if these are still at his ‘corrected’ age) which is a testament to how much of a fighter he is and continues to be- as one of his nurses once said “It’s like he doesn’t want to believe he is a premature baby”. We are all so proud of him and the progress he has made, which is all thanks to the amazing doctors and nurses at the NICU giving him the best start they could. So now it’s time to repay them and help fund some equipment to make their jobs a bit easier, and to help those little ones, and their families who are now in the position Harry and his family were in.

Please donate what you can. Thank you.

https://www.icklepickles.org