Grand appeal - Bristol Children’s Hospital

This year a number of our OSJCT care homes are raising vital funds for The Grand Appeal, the official Bristol Children’s Hospital charity, which is committed to saving the lives of sick children and supporting their families. We are taking part in the Wallace & Gromit’s Wrong Trousers Day. On Friday 21st June, our team and visitors will be encouraged to arrive at our care homes dressed in the wrong trousers. We will also invite members of the community into the home to join us for a cuppa and a slice of cake whilst taking part a range of activities.

Bristol Children’s Hospital cares for over 100,000 patients each year from across the South West and South Wales. Babies, children, and young adults with complex medical conditions are cared for around the clock by the extraordinary hospital staff.

Why do we want to raise funds for The Grand Appeal?

Matt, our Deputy Home Manager at Edwardstow Court, in Stow-on-the-Wold, has been supported by Bristol Children’s Hospital since October 2023 when his daughter, Ivy-Rose, was diagnosed with B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

Ivy-Rose is living with Down Syndrome which means she is at a much higher risk of developing infections and having side effects to the Chemotherapy, this meant that Ivy-Rose had to stay at Bristol Children’s Hospital for her treatment as things could change quickly for her. It’s now been 7 months of being an inpatient at Bristol Children’s Hospital. Matt and his family are awaiting results to see if Ivy-Rose’s treatment has worked and hoping she will enter the next 18-month phase of daily chemotherapy administered from home, being in remission.

Matt said, “Bristol Children’s Hospital has saved our daughter’s life on 4 occasions through her journey so far and as a small token, we would like to raise some funds for the Oncology department”.

Ann-Marie, our Finance Support Administrator for the Trust has a 10-year-old Nephew, Marcus who unfortunately became very ill in February this year and has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Marcus, along with Matt's daughter, is being treated at Bristol Children's Hospital with chemotherapy, unfortunately, the first two lots of chemotherapy did not work for Marcus. He is now being treated at Bristol Children's Hospital with a trial chemotherapy drug, in the hope that the cancer cells will get down to 1% so he can have a much-needed bone marrow transplant. Thankfully the trial chemotherapy drug he is now on is not so aggressive, so his body is in a better fighting place.

Ann-Marie said, “The family cannot praise Bristol Children's Hospital enough and would like to help raise funds for this much-needed children’s unit.”

Fran, our Deputy home manager at Goodson Lodge in Trowbridge was supported by St Michael’s intensive care unit for babies when her youngest son, Freddie was born. Fran and her family were lucky enough to be able to stay in the charity house, just over the road from the hospital, so they were able to be with Freddie. The charity house is funded by Cots for Tots which is a part of The Grand appeal charity.

This charity is very close to our hearts, any donations would be greatly appreciated. If you can donate, please do.