When I was pregnant with Arabella, we were told by the doctors she would have to stay in the hospital for a month or two, at that point even that length of time worried me. I wasn’t aware that, the charity, Ronald McDonald existed and was scared on how I was going to manage living so far away from our daughter. I never anticipated that this stay would turn into over a 11-month period, and we never knew that Ronald McDonald in Edinburgh would be our temporary family home.

When Arabella was born, she had a few abnormalities and hydrops (a life-threatening conditions that causes an abnormal fluid build-up in fetus and newborns). This ultimately resulted in her having a surgery at only 2 days old and she had many more surgeries that followed. This ended up meaning she had to stay in the Paediatric Critical Care Unit (PCCU) where she spent 6 months getting better. In the PCCU there was nowhere for us, parents, to stay by her side. So, we had to heavily rely on Ronald McDonald for a place to stay so we could be close to her.

Luckily after this 6 month stay in the PCCU we were moved to the Dunvegan ward, although this means only one of us is able to stay with her overnight, so again we had to rely on Ronald McDonald to allow both of us to be close to her and be able to live as a family.

With that all said, we are due to leave the hospital with our baby girl in a few months hoping to make it out for her 1st birthday, but we do know we have future hospital stays ahead of us due to further surgeries needed. Knowing we have Ronald McDonald puts me and Nick at ease knowing we can put all our attention into Arabella and not have to panic about accommodations and travel.

We could never thank Ronald McDonald enough for the opportunities it has given us to spend every waking moment with our beautiful baby girl. So, I am wanting to give back to them in any way possible to show my gratification towards them and help any future families that end up in the same predicament as us.

As for this myself and nick wanted to do a fundraiser to show our appreciation for Ronald McDonald and help them provide support to families by giving them a place to stay close to their child who needs medical help. For a night’s stay in Ronald McDonald, it costs them £35, so, we are asking you, if at all possible, to make a donation. No matter how big or how small it will help in unimaginable ways.

I can also reassure you Arabella is now the happiest, most cheeky girl and is thriving despite the battles she has been through. Nick and I thought it would be good to share a little back story on why this is so important to us and why we want to help this charity.