The why:

Being pregnant is stressful at the best of times. Now imagine it’s happening to you during the current pandemic. We have put this page together to support the staff at Chelsea & Westminster hospital who are working tirelessly to help women at one of the most vulnerable stages of their lives.

The ask:

To take part just follow these four easy steps:

🌟 Star jump for 5 mins

🌟 Donate £5 on our justgiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nhsstarjumpers 

🌟 Nominate 5 people to take this challenge

🌟 Share on any social media channel using the hashtag #NHSstarjumpers  

ALL ages welcomed and encouraged to jump for our NHS Stars 🌟

Please consider sharing home-drawn pictures, photos, videos, star-themed songs, anything that shows your support. The maternity services unit needs new art on their walls, and we think some great star pictures will really brighten up the wards during these dark times! (NB – we will contact you in advance of using any artwork submitted to make sure you consent)

The impact:

Just £5 will help us fund a welfare bag with a mix of toiletries and cleaning products for our NHS stars to take home (all the shops around the hospital are shut and people are working very long hours)

If you can convince 5 people to take part and donate, £25 will enable us to provide blood pressure machines so that women with complex pregnancies can monitor their blood pressures at home (this is hugely important as they are the most vulnerable)

If you can rally 10 people to take part and donate, £50 will allow us to provide an hour of professional counselling to support staff, many of whom have amplified anxiety and in some cases are experiencing PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)

And if you can get 100 people jumping and donating, £500 will allow us to buy iPads so that community midwives can easily stay in touch with expectant mothers (as so much more is being requested to be done virtually)

The background:

“We set up this page because both of us have been lucky enough to have the incredible Vicki Cochrane as our midwife (we have three children each). Vicki is one of the many NHS super stars and now one of our closest friends, living locally in North West London. Vicki is the Director of Midwifery at Chelsea & Westminster and is an inspiration to us all with her compassion and hard work which makes a difference to so many. She has been determined to continue providing her exceptional services to the community despite the challenges presented by the pandemic. We wanted to do something to help her and her incredible staff during these exceedingly difficult times. Thanks for reading.”

Tamsin & Isabel

"They say it takes a community to raise a child, it also takes a maternity service with its own community of dedicated midwives, doctors and other healthcare professionals to support families through one of the most life changing experiences of bringing a child into the world.  At Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust we are committed to providing safe and personalised care for every person using our service. Each year 10,400 women giving birth with us and the changes we have had to make to the service almost overnight due to the global pandemic of COVID-19 have been innovative but also challenging in many ways.  To ensure we continue to provide world class care we need to support our community of staff with both their physical and mental wellbeing more now than ever before.  We have also had to think creatively about the ways in which we can deliver all aspects of maternity care which have traditionally all been face-to-face." 

Vicki Cochrane, Director of Midwifery

Follow the campaign:

Follow along on Instagram: @nhs_star_jumpers and Facebook: @NHSstarjumpers to see the creative and fun ways people are bringing their support to life.

A reminder… the ask….

YOU can help raise money for the NHS nurses, midwives, doctors and healthcare professionals at Chelsea & Westminster and West Middlesex Hospital maternity services, who like many other front line stars, are feeling the impact around COVID-19 by challenging yourself and others to our 🌟Star Jump Challenge 🌟. Please consider supporting this campaign to support our wonderful NHS and specifically maternity care provision during these times of crisis.