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Hi, I'm Jade Powers. I am the youngest of four with three brothers, all sharing the same initials - JP!

My youngest brother Joe, 24 has been with his fiance Charlotte for seven years. After getting engaged, they began trying for their first baby in 2010, but weren't as lucky as some & found it difficult to conceive. Before putting themselves both through checks at the hospital, in February 2012, Charlotte found out she was pregnant.

In November 2012 Teddy Joe Powers was born and Joe and Charlotte were amazing parents. Despite having a few problems with reflux and colic, Ted was a happy baby and Joe and Charlotte had they're amazing little family. 

At Ted's first birthday party in 2013, I found out that Charlotte had fallen pregnant so quick & that I'd be an auntie again. We awaited with excitement to find out the gender of the baby. On 21st January 2014, at a private gender scan, Joe & Char had some heartbreaking news. The scan showed the baby - that was a girl - had a heart defect, that it didn't look as though it had formed properly. They were referred to Great Ormond Street within 24 hours.

At this time my family was washed with a complete contrast of emotions from sheer excitement that a little girl was going to be welcomed to the family to relentless nerves and worry as to the uncertainty of what the future will hold for our little girl. 

The news from GOSH didn't get any better but their optimism was reassuring to everyone. Great Ormond Street Hospital has a world renowned reputation for the outstanding work, love and support they provide for ill children facing life threatening situations. We knew we were in good hands. My niece has a rare and complex heart condition called Left Atrial Isnomerism and common AV Junction (LAI). This means there is no separation between the top two chambers of her heart. That means her heart just works as a left side, rather than a left and a right. Our little princess is at risk of Bradycardia (a heart block) so may need a pacemaker when she is born. To fix her poorly heart, she'll need to be operated on twice (minimum) before she is five months old.The heart condition will cause for her stomach to form on the wrong side of her body. This means that there is a possibility of a bowel obstruction, which will need to be operated on again for it to be corrected.Charlotte's due date is the 2nd July. 

GOSH are unable to tell the complexity of my niece's condition, however we are staying positive. Only time will tell. We are determind to give something back to Great Ormond Street, for everything they've done for us so far and in the future.

On Friday 20th June we got some worrying news. Charlotte had been experiencing pains within the night and when she'd gone to hospital to get it checked it, they were concerned and made her stay in. The baby's heart rate was plummeting and increasing significantly in the space of minutes. The normal is around 110-160 bpm, whereas we were watching the machine go to 60-200! We were informed that Charlotte was going to have to be induced or an emergency Caesarian was going have to take place as the heart rate was a sign of  Bradycardia (heart block).

We had already been warned about this from GOSH, at this time we prepared ourselves that she's probably need the pace maker installed which meant surgery as soon as she arrived. We were heartbroken, but tried to stay strong for Charlotte, she hadn't had any sleep and the hospital had been a nightmare. She's spent half the day there without a bed, there hardly monitored the baby's heart - everything was just adding up and I'm sure a huge breakdown would of been on the cards if we hadn't had a lot of laughs and jokes in the room that we'd threatened the hospital to give us! We was waiting for a high risk delivery room to become available so the midwives could start the procedure to induce Charlotte.

Just coming up to 8 o'clock, we was getting ready to leave as visiting hours were soon to be over - we were trying our hardest to persuade Charlotte not to discharge herself, when we got the news that a high risk room was available. Straight away they began moving Charlotte. We said our goodbyes and hoped that the baby would make an appearance sooner than later!

The next morning, the day of my works annual summer fete, in which this year the money raised went to Great Ormond Street, we were told that they was still waiting for Char to dilate. I had a few errands to run in our local town of Epsom, when I got a call from my dad saying that everything was moving quickly and it looked like the baby would be here before we made the 80 minute journey there. We was on the very next train. We got to the hospital in time and had to sit in the waiting room. I managed to sneak down to sit outside the High Risk room with my brother who has a phobia of hospitals and couldn't be in the room during the birth. We had been warned that she may not cry when she's here, but that if she does - its a VERY good sign. The next thing we hear is crying from the room and Joe barges inside to have a look at his baby girl. 

Straight away myself and my brother then were able to walk his little baby down to intensive care. It was a hard moment and to watch my brother's little glances to his baby girl laying in the huge cot all by herself was hard. yet all he could do was smile at her and he generally looked happy. However we had no idea what her future would hold until they done the checks that they needed to do. The ICU nurses explained the tests they were going to carry out, but at the time nothing really went in. We just couldn't stop looking at this little human being who had been through so much in this short period of time, dressed in a nappy and little white hat. That day, Joe & Charlotte spent their time in ICU and went through the list of possible names, Poppy, Robyn, Sydney... but they wanted neither. Joe picked the name Harper. He said it sounds similar to Heart. Harper's Heart. They then called after yours truly... Harper Jade Powers. The tests all went okay and GOSH were happy with Harper and how well she was doing, Charlotte and Harper were discharged a few days after.

Although Harper is doing well, her spleen hasn't developed properly and is an abnormal shape. This means that there is a possibility that she'll need to be on Penicillin for the rest of her life. We have also just received a letter from Great Ormond Street about Harper's first operation and now we have to wait for the date. It's going to be hard, but I look at how much of a fighter Harper has already been and I have no doubt that she will pull through this. 

I know that Great Ormond Street are going to fix Harper's Heart and I couldn't be more grateful. What do you give back to a hospital and it's nurses that are going to prolong your niece's life so that she can live a normal life as much as possible? Money... Money, so that they are able to do this again and again. So they can fix many more hearts, just like Harper's.

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