Our beautiful son, Isaac Maxwell Brodie, was born on 1st February 2016. Shortly before he was born, we discovered he had a mass on his brain, and aged just two days old, Isaac was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where we would spend the next eleven days of Isaac's life.

It's hard to do justice to the care we received at GOSH. Everyone knows GOSH has the reputation of being one of the leading children’s hospitals in the world, but we were just absolutely blown away by everything they did for our family. Isaac’s team of doctors included neurosurgeons, neurologists, ICU consultants, oncologists and palliative care consultants. There were physiotherapists, family liaison specialists, psychologists, play specialists, and a whole host of GOSH volunteers that visited on a near daily basis, all going out of their way to ensure that we and Isaac had everything we needed and that they were doing everything they possibly could to give him world-class care and attention. We were given accommodation, just two minutes from the hospital, to ensure that we could be as close to Isaac as possible, and spend as much time with him as we could.

It was the nursing team, however, that really blew us away. In the neo-natal ICU, nurse care is 1 to 1, meaning Isaac had his own nurse at all times – one during the day and one at night. Of course, the
nurses all fell in love with Isaac’s irresistible charm, and would argue over who got to look after him for each shift. Each and every nurse, however, was brilliant, and showed such compassion, professionalism and love for our little boy.

Sadly, after a week or so at GOSH, once we understood more about Isaac's condition (a tumour in the brain stem) it became clear that there was nothing that the doctors could do. We decided to stop a lot of the routine tests that are done every day on an ICU ward, knowing that the results couldn’t change the outcome for Isaac, and wanting to ensure he was as comfortable as possible, not having to endure blood tests, skin pricks, bright lights in his eyes, and so on. Supporting our decision, the nursing team did everything they could to make Isaac, and us, even more comfortable.

We moved to a more private area of the ICU, where they provided two sofas to make things more homely. We were able to take Isaac out of his cot as often as we wanted, to hold him, and cuddle him, as much as we could. We were allowed to break the rules and have more than three people with him at once, meaning our parents, brother and sister, and grandparents, were able to come and see Isaac, to hold him, and to experience that joy together. And we were able to take on much of Isaac’s care ourselves – feeding him, changing his nappies and even giving him a ‘bath’, which essentially just involved pouring a lot of water over him in his cot and making quite a mess! But a wonderful memory for us to cherish.

The nurses did everything they could to make a very unnatural hospital environment feel as normal as possible, and we got to experience all those new parent ‘firsts’ that we had been preparing for for months – that first nappy, the first time he weed on us, the first time dressing our baby, his first bath, his first cuddles with his grandmas and grandpas.

And there were other ‘firsts’ too that helped us build even more memories. Isaac very quickly became a big fan of arts and crafts – well, we’re not sure how much he actually enjoyed any of the
activities but we certainly did! Isaac has paint hand and footprints, ink hand and footprints, various clay hand and footprints – all facilitated by the GOSH teams. A photographer came and we had a mini family photoshoot, providing us with some beautiful photos that we will cherish forever. All of this meant that during our 11 days at GOSH there were many moments of laughter, and of joy, which certainly outweighed the moments of sadness and the tears. And we managed
to capture many of these moments in videos, and in photos, so we can re-live them, and share them, and never forget how special they were.

We experienced all sorts of emotions in the 18 days that Isaac was with us, from the moment we found out about his illness, until the day he died. One of the hardest to deal with was the feeling that none of this was true – that we were living in a bubble or a terrible dream, where nothing was real and where we simply couldn't comprehend what was going on. But this has been real – this has really happened to us, and Isaac. And the teams at both GOSH and Haven House helped us to create those magical memories and gave us those experiences that, when we look back, do make things real. We were blessed with the most special little boy, our own little miracle, and we were able to live each of his 18 days to the full.  And for that we will always be grateful to GOSH and Haven House – for everything they did for us and for every memory they have given us.

We hope by fundraising in Isaac's memory we will enable this incredible hospital to continue to help other babies and children, and their families, at their times of need.