As well as helping the organisations that helped us we wanted to be able to help individuals in the same way charities were able to help us.
We were very fortunate to receive help with purchasing a mobility vehicle. It changed our lives. It meant the difference between being stuck inside for the winter and being able to go out and do things and even go on holiday. Although we only had it for 4 months before Ella passed away the things we did in those 4 months I will never forget and meant the world to me.
The thought of people being stuck in a similar situation breaks my heart. Knowing you have very little time to spend with your child is hard enough but knowing you cant make the memories you wanted due to not having the right equipment is even harder.
By providing the funding for the necessary equipment we know we can change the lives of families and make things that little bit easier so they can spend more time enjoying their beautiful children.
The equipment will be passed on to other families when they are finished with, so each piece of equipment will help multiple families.
Individuals
Here are the details of how your donations will benefit others.
The final things we would like to purchase for the hospital is sensory products. Whilst the playroom provides a fantastic choice of toys for children, there are a very limited number of sensory toys due to their high cost.
Ella always loved the mobile sensory unit with a bubble tube and fibre optic lights but currently there is only 1 for the whole ward. We would like to make this 2 as well as purchasing sensory toys, projectors and other disabled friendly products.
As well as medical equipment we would like to buy items specifically for use for disabled children. As you can imagine disabled children spend a fair amount of time in hospital. However a lot of the specialist equipment they have installed at home they don't have at hospital. The main problem we always had was seating. There are currently no seats available for children who have no head control. We had to rely on building chairs out of pillows - which didn't go down well with others when we had 10 pillows to ourselves! So by purchasing a set of specialist chairs this will mean most disabled children will always be able to have a seat to eat their dinner in and healthy children can use them too. This is a picture of Ella in her tumbleform.
Even before Ella's death we had decided we wanted to raise funds for Gloucester Hospital Children's Centre. We spent a lot of time at the hospital and we were always looked after extremely well and the care was fantastic.
We wanted to give back to something we used so regularly. We are planning on splitting the donations over a number of items. Some of the money raised will be used to buy new medical equipment, in particular
a CPAP machine. CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) is very similar to the machines Ella was on when she had chest infections. They allow oxygen to be warmed to body temperature which then allows it to be delivered with a high pressure helping the lungs to inflate. These machines saved Ella's life on numerous occasions and by providing the hospital with another one, we will be able to help save others.