On 30th March 2020 my 43 year old Stepdad got admitted to Hull Royal after having bad suspected covid-19 symptoms at home for a few days. On the 2nd April, the day before my daughters first birthday, he got moved to the ICU unit at Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham. He was in ICU for 41 days, 3 and a half weeks of which were in an induced coma. He spent his 44th birthday there. He had a collapsed lung, viral and bacterial pneumonia, a rare lung fungus, an inflammatory disease which caused his immune system to start attacking his healthy cells, kidney failure, heart problems, to name a few. My Mum was told on three occasions to prepare for the worst, and that he has only a 1% chance of survival. During this whole time I was unable to see my Mum of course due to lockdown restrictions, and this was excruciatingly difficult. 

Somehow, my Stepdads inner warrior put up the most almighty fight and I am so happy to say that he left ICU 4 weeks ago. He has since been in a rehabilitation ward where he is working extremely hard with the physio team to build up his strength to get back home to my Mum. He has probably another 3 to 4 weeks in there as he learns how to walk again, amongst other things. 

I cannot begin to tell you how difficult this time has been for our family. Seeing my Mum cry over video call to me on a daily basis during the darker days of him being in ICU was unbearable, and not being able to do anything to help has been very difficult. The ICU team and all the staff at our Hull hospitals, as well as the entire NHS, are doing an absolutely outstanding job, and I really can't express that enough! My Stepdad shouldn't have survived, and they are using his recovery as a way of training other NHS staff on how to care for a covid-19 patient. Which is amazing. He will be back home to my Mum in no time and that makes my heart so happy.

I set up a virtual summer fair which took place on the 13th and 14th June (search 'The Hornsea Lockdown Virtual Summer Fair' into Facebook to find it and have a look through the discussion page). At this two day event there were 40 fantastic local businesses advertising their services and products as well as performers like singers and even a comedy duo act. I used this event as a platform to start the fundraising for this fantastic cause and have managed to raise £1098 so far. On Tuesday my Stepdad is coming out of hospital after 11 long weeks. Please please please get involved and donate what you can for our fabulous hospitals. They are saving so many lives during this difficult time. Thank you.