From helping staff, patients or their families, The Grand Appeal puts Bristol Children's Hospital at the heart of everything they do.

They support the hospital through:

Family accommodation: they run three accommodation houses that provide a safe and supportive place for families to stay while their child is in hospital.

Medical research: they invest in medical research programmes to ensure the hospital remains a hub of innovation, where everyday experts pave the way for sick children through a network of projects with international impact.

Equipment: they fund state-of-the-art equipment to save lives.

Music, play and art therapy: their music, play and arts programme can be seen in every ward at Bristol Children's Hospital, helping young children to deal with the stresses and fears they may face during treatment.

Art enhancements: they work to make sure Bristol Children's Hospital provides a fun, stimulating and comforting space for the brave children it cares for.

Ayda and I will be taking part in wrong trouser day for Bristol children’s hospital again this year. Ayda was a patient in Bristol children’s hospital over 3 years ago! Sam and I are so grateful how they looked after Ayda and supported us! They are fabulous.

As many people already know Ayda had open heart surgery at the age of 2 years and 4 months which is the hardest most emotional experience Sam and I have been through

So a little background story regarding Ayda.

Ayda had her 6 weeks check up like every baby, they picked up a murmur and said not to worry mostly babies have innocent murmurs but the doctor said she was going to send us for a scan to be on the safe side.

Then covid hit, I refused to leave the house of the fear that because Ayda had a murmur that Covid would kill her and it was a dark place to be in. We had our first appointment in Bridgend due to restrictions Sam had to wait in the car whilst I went in with Ayda. She was 3 months old. We were told that the location the hole was in was causing aortic regurgitation and was pulling in one of her aorta valves. We were then sent to health hospital a few months later, again Sam had to wait in the car whilst I went in with Ayda. The consultant scanned Ayda, and showed me what was happening with her heart and we were told due to the location it looks like she would need open heart surgery, as you can imagine no parent want to put there child through any sort of surgery never mind open heart surgery. They wanted to see how she would go for a few months before another check up where they confirmed she would need the surgery. We were sent up to Bristol for a 3D heart scan to them to prepare for her surgery. The day of her appointment Covid restrictions got lifted in England, this was the first appointment that Sam and I could attend together and Ayda was 2 years old.

We then had to go though her pre opp appointment and a surgery date. Ayda’s first surgery date got cancelled on the day, we had been admitted the day before and she was scheduled for the afternoon but they were not able to do it, we got sent home to wait for another date. We had the second date so again travelled up. On the day of admission it got cancelled we were told they were going to fight for Ayda’s case to be admitted the day after, spending our time wandering around Bristol with our mind racing. They won the fight for her case and she was admitted on 19th April 2022 she then had her surgery on 20th April 2022. After surgery and we were able to see her it was agonising seeing our baby on ICU with wires everywhere, she fought the sedation medication and woke up when she shouldn’t which was traumatic and I was in an absolute state. A week later we were discharged. She also came off medication a few weeks after where doctors thought she would be on for life.

Our superhero, heart warrior princess just keeps defining the odds.

We just got to see how she grows now and whether she’ll need more surgery, but at the moment she’s doing incredible❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️