Nic and I are working with the Children's Hospital and the charity team to identify a piece of equipment that we can fund in memory of Gethin to help other families in the future. One idea is to raise money for another state of the art, specialised echocardiogram machine. This is really important equipment that was frequently used on Gethin and provides high quality, real-time images of the heart.

Gethin was our lovely 14 year old son, twin brother to Iestyn and proud big brother to Lilidh and Oshie. After a short illness and a three week stay in the Children's Hospital, despite all the amazing care and treatment that Gethin received, he died at the beginning of December due to complications from his shunt operation in early November and the effect these had on his heart and lungs.

From the moment Nic's 12 week scan in 2007 revealed that we were expecting twins, we have been inexorably linked to the Children's Hospital! Beginning with Gethin and Iestyn's very rough start to life, being born at 24 weeks and spending their first 6 months in SCBU, to their various return visits to the "Mothership" as inpatients and outpatients, we have always had nothing but praise and gratitude for the care and treatment that both our boys have received over the years.

In this short amount of time since he died, we are slowly getting there and feel slightly better with every day that passes. Gethin was an extraordinarily special little person and touched the lives of everyone that he met. The overall feeling that we share above everything else is that we are grateful to have had him in our lives for as long as we did. We know that we owe everything to the incredibly dedicated, caring and loving staff at the Children's Hospital. Gethin had a fulfilling, fun-filled life and was always smiling and joking, even when he was ill in hospital. He never complained or moaned about what he couldn't do or didn't have - we believe that he was also grateful for the life that he had and thrived in the love that his family and friends were able to surround him with. 

For nearly 15 years we have been honoured to call ourselves Gethin's parents. We can never thank the hospital staff enough for everything that they have done and still do for our family. They gave us the chance to share our lives with our amazing boy in the first place and for this, we will be eternally grateful.

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