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If you wish to read on we will tell our story which will explain our need to give something back to the amazing people and organizations we were part of.

On December the 13th 2012 at 11.11am, we were blessed with the arrival of our second daughter Claudia Reece Mitchell. Immediately after the birth it was clear to us that things were not well. She was taken straight from us and to resus. I was called into the room and it was explained to me that she was struggling to breathe on her own. She was placed on ventilation and taken to the ICU.

5 hours passed and we still had no word on how she was or what was happening. We were eventually allowed up to the ICU to see her when the serious nature of her condition became all too apparent. Surrounded by machines and doctors it was explained to us that they were doing all the could for her and had 1 more intensive ventilation machine that they would try. She would be unable to stay of this type of ventilation machine for an extended period of time due to the aggressive nature of forcing oxygen into the lungs. This would cause irreparable damage.

Claudia was a meconium aspirate baby. She had her first bowel movement whilst still inside Gemma. As she drew her first breath after delivery she filled her lungs with the sticky tar like meconium. This was now clinging to the walls of her lungs and preventing vital gases from exchanging across her lung membrane. In short, her lungs did not work, and as a result her oxygen levels were falling dangerously low.

Claudia was placed on the final type of ventilation, an oscillator, but there was still no improvement in her oxygen saturation levels. The news was broken to us that there was nothing more they could do for her at the Royal Gwent.

However, Dr Reddy (Claudia's true savior) said that there was a specialist team called ECMO that may be able to help. He had not used them before, but as a last roll of the dice he would call them and provide them with the information about Claudia. It was explained that she would have to pass several test to check if she was suitable for this exclusive treatment. The first phone call was made at 5:30pm.

At around 7pm we eceived the news that Claudia would qualify for the treatment and that the team were assembling and would travel via blue light to RGH to treat Claudia. By 11pm, Dr Reddy came and told us that the ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) team had arrived. We met her surgeon, Guiseppe, who referred to her as 'cloudy-a' due to his thick Italian accent. He smiled as he told us not to cry and that we should be so happy that Claudia qualified for this life saving treatment. He explained what he would do and we signed piece of paper that consented the doctors and nurses to do all they could dot save our daughter's life.

ECMO involves shutting down the lungs (and sometimes heart) totally and taking deoxygenated blood from an artery in the neck. The blood is run through the specialist machine which then oxygenates it and returns it back into the neck. This provides oxygen to the body without needing the use of the heart and lungs.

Claudia was operated on in the ICU ward at RGH, a first for the hospital and all the staff, and placed on the life saving treatment. By 1.30am she was on her to Glenfield hospital Leicester where we would spend no definite time in the ICU on ECMO. Her lungs were constantly cleaned and flushed allowing her time to recover.

On the third day Claudia was trialled off the treatment and allowed to breathe on her own again, with some support from ventilation. Many babies are not successful on theit first trial, but after only 60 hours Claudia's lungs had recovered enough to oxygenate her blood once more with the help of a normal ventilator. It became apparent how strong she was, how much of a little fighter we had.

She was then declared fit enough to be transferred back to the Royal Gwent again and so we awaited a bed on ICU. After such fantastic care at Glenfield we were a little reluctant to leave the wonderful doctors and nurses who had cared for Claudia, and us. Her name means 'perseverance' and they persevered with her every step of the way. They watched her every second of every day. The tended to her every need. They bathed her, they talked to her, but most importantly they made us feel as safe as she was in their expert care. This enabled us to focus on loving and willing Claudia to pull through. We were able to be with her 24/7, and they encouraged and enthused us and made us believe she would make it. And with their expertise, she did.

We need not have been nervous about returning to the RGH. The staff were outstanding on ICU. They helped Claudia to recover and are due their own commendation. We are alarmed to hear that the ICU at RGH may close and intend to support them in any way we can. Without Dr Reddy, and nurse Caroline English, ECMO may not have even been a possibility for our daughter. (Caroline resuscitated Claudia at birth and gave her 1:1 care when her life was most at risk).  Claudia spent two more weeks in ICU at RGH, just before new year she was eventually allowed home.

We will never be able to repay all of those who saved her life. We will also never be able to properly show our appreciation to the Heartlink charity. They provided us with a bedroom within the hospital so we could be close to our baby. Plus all of the little things that we take for granted - tea and coffee, a tv, showers. All of which are provided by charitable donations. We were so grateful for these amenities and they provided us with the rest and recovery we also needed. Amazingly some of the specialist life saving machines and ambulances are also funded by charitable donations. Without these our lives would be so different right now. Without these Claudia may not have even had a life to speak of. In the first instance, ECMO was SOLELY funded by Heartlink, until the treatment received qualification for NHS funding. We owe everything to this hospital and to charity that supports it. Again, we are mortified to find that there is talk of closing Glenfield. This makes no sense when they are leaders in their field and have almost 100% success rate with ECMO when babies are purely suffering from meconium aspiration with no other complications.

Therefore, we feel that we have taken so much from this wonderful charity that we have to try and repay them in some way. So this seems the best way that we can. We will also be running the Cardiff half marathon later on this year also in aid of Hearlink.

And Claudia???

She is now almost 5 months old and is developing fantastically. She has come to the end of some medication that she has had to take since her treatment, so we are looking forward to closing this chapter and starting next. She can sit, chuckle, grab and is starting to eat solids. She adores her big sister Ellen who dotes equally on her little sister whom she calls 'Claudy Lordy Lou'. We are so grateful to have her. She is our little snowdrop, our pristine winter flower who kept on pushing through despite the bitterness she had to face in the beginning. And now she is over that dark season of her life, she continues to blossom and bloom.

We hope you can understand our passion for this charity and decide to support us.

'Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequence of misfortune.'

Thank you

Scott & Gemma

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