The Portsmouth Hospitals Charity aims to serve the patients of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust by providing additional facilities, education and equipment to both patients and staff .The charity supports all of the wards and departments throughout the Trust, so from new borns to neurology, bones to brains, you can choose to support the particular area of the hospital that is close to your heart.

So with that in mind me and Ava will be taking part in a ward walk for Portsmouth hospitals charity for QA and we decided our chosen ward to raise money for would be non other that NICU. The charity walk will take place  on the 20th may at Staunton park and gardens. 

There are not enough words to describe how I/we feel about all the amazing staff on the NICU department who in our eyes are miracle workers we have said thank you a million times but it just doesn’t seem enough. The consultants, registrars, nurses, ward admin, Carol Buxton (legend) even the cleaners were all supportive and made the effort with my family in so many ways but most of all they did all they could and more to help ensure our daughter lived. Ava was born at 24 weeks 5 days gestation and spent 4 1/2 months in ITU/high dependency and special care she’s undergone a PDA in which we travelled to Southampton for a heart operation to close Ava’s duct which was successful. Ava spent a lot more time on the vent in ITU then she should of but in the end it was the best for her and all she requires help with now is her oxygen which is required 24 hours a day for sometime the technical term is chronic lung disease due to her coming so early so the oxygen helps her and the more she grows and gains weight the improvements will become more apparent within her lungs. We have weekly check ups with the community NICU nurses who again are amazing. The nurses became part of our family and friends to me especially when I had bad days and they just knew they loved our daughter and always came to se ever even if they weren’t looking after her that shift. They really don’t get the recongnotion for what they do on a daily basis, you can never truly imagine what it’s like unless you are in this situation, some of the parents we met along the way didn’t have the outcome we had but you do what you can to be there for each other along the way. Then on the 26th Janauary we finally were able to bring our baby girl home and become a family of four plus the dog. 

We have a 3 year old boy Dylan aswell who took everything in his stride and is an amazing big brother and dotes on his baby sister. 

This is the best way I know how to give back to them what they have given us for life our precious princess Ava.

Please donate to this wonderful ward