Thanks for visiting our team fundraising page.
We've joined together to raise money for three amazing charities very close to our hearts. You'll see our team fundraising target on the right. Your donation can really help us smash this goal. We will be doing various fundraising activities including a sponsored 13 mile walk round Loch Leven on 2nd April.
Our daughter Lily was born on 28th July 2016. She had a number of serious heart conditions which meant she had to be transferred to the Royal Children's Hospital in Glasgow shortly after she was born. Following a number of tests we were unfortunately told that the heart defects could not be repaired. It was agreed she would still need to undergo heart surgery to alleviate her breathing problems.
Her condition was so serious that we could never be far away. For the first 2 nights, we did not have anywhere to stay and spent the nights in the hospital. We were already worried about Lily, and the last thing we needed to worry about was where we were going to sleep. Being accepted into Ronald McDonald House helped remove this worry and allowed us to be minutes away from Lily as the house is situated on hospital grounds. We were able to spend all of our time with Lily, taking turns to return to the house to sleep knowing that one of us was with Lily and the other could be there in a few minutes.
Lily had surgery on 17th August and spent the next 5 weeks in and out of intensive care. Although she had survived the operation, she was still struggling to breathe without support. The majority of her time in Glasgow was spent in the Paediatric intensive care unit. She also spent time in the Cardiac care unit. Here she met Kirsty from the play team. Hospitals can be very scary for young children and the job of the play team was to make the experience less daunting. They provide children with toys and other stimuli such as fibre-optic lights. For Lily they were able to provide hand and foot prints and casts. In the cardiac unit they have a wonderful scheme called Beads of Courage. Each time a cardiac patient reaches another milestone they get a new bead. These are collected and shown as evidence of their courage. Lily's bead collection was so great that it comfortably encircled her whole body. Lily also had special visitors, super heroes such as Batman, Captain America and Jack Sparrow. By the end of September, Lily had managed to put on weight and had grown strong enough to be weaned off of her breathing support. This also meant we could be transferred back to Kirkcaldy as she was no longer dependant on this support.
Following admission to Kirkcaldy Children's ward, we were introduced to a network of support services with the aim of getting Lily home and managing her condition as an outpatient. This included CHAS at home, who offered a 24 hour support helpline if needed and also access to Rachel House for some respite. Regrettably, we were never able to take advantage of any of this support. Despite surpassing all expectations, Lily died on 5th October 2016 aged 9 weeks. We were taken to Rachel House in Kinross, run by CHAS, to spend some time with Lily using their Rainbow room and the cold cot instead of sending Lily straight to the Funeral home. This allowed us to say goodbye to Lily in our own time.
We are raising funds for these charities, not only because of the help and support we were offered, but also to help them provide this to other families in their time of need. Your donation will help other families when they need it most. You can donate either using the buttons at the bottom of this page, or alternatively you can view the individual page to learn more about each charity.
Remember: Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never share them with anyone or send you unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. They'll make sure Gift Aid (an additional 25%) is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer, too. That means more money goes to the charity, faster, with JustGiving.
