Freddie’s Story

This is a cause very close to my heart. Some of you may or may not know that whilst I was on maternity leave, I spent quite a bit of time in the Great North Children’s Hospital with my little boy. Freddie was born on the 22nd December 2020 with no complications and in good health. From him being born I thought there was something not quite right, at seven weeks old and the 10th February, pandemic after numerous hospital visits, we were rushed to the RVI for scans on him to find out that he had a large tumour attached to the bottom of his spine (sacrococcygeal teratoma is the fancy name). We were told that this was life and death and that we were on “borrowed time”. He was top of the emergency list to be operated on within the hour for a life saving operation. All whilst we’re slap bang in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Restrictions meant that only I was allowed to be present with Freddie, meaning I was on my own with my husband at home.

Freddie underwent the massive operation and thankfully survived. Due to the tumour being so large we were told beforehand that he would either come out of the operation with damage, needing either a catheter or a stoma bag, which we wouldn’t know until after the operation was done. At this point I didn’t really care, as long as he survived. Freddie spent 12 gruelling days on life support in the Paediatrics Intensive Care Unit (PICU) (and I aged about 500 years!). Once off the ventilator and discharged onto the ward we realised that it was Freddie’s bladder that had been affected and the operation had severed the nerve in the bladder that tells your brain that you need to go to the toilet. Obviously, this can be very dangerous. We worked with the team at the RVI and myself and my husband had to be trained to intermittently catheterise at home. We did this on a four hourly basis, day and night. We were told that the brain can rebuild the pathway to repair this issue, but that it was rare and we needed to prepare for this to be a lifelong problem and to expect Freddie to be going into adulthood with problems.

After everything that had already happened, we didn’t expect this. We worked alongside the hospital and the charity and were sent home in May of last year. Like the superstar that he is, amazingly Freddie slowly but surely started to rebuild the pathway in his brain and in September last year his bladder started show signs that it was starting to work again. Fast forward to August this year, after numerous hospital visits and scans, we have had confirmation that Freddie’s bladder is in fully working order and is healed from the trauma sustained by the pressure of the tumour and the operation. He’s absolutely amazing but we couldn’t have done it without the help of this charity.

The Charity we are helping

The Great North Children’s Hospital Foundation is part of Newcastle Hospitals Charity, and they support the many children and their families who go to hospital for treatment and care, making their hospital experience the best it possibly can be. The Foundation supports life changing research, cutting-edge equipment and technology and projects to make the hospital more welcoming for children. They've supplied us with toys, blankets, playrooms whilst in hospital, music lessons and most importantly support for us as a family. They’re real-life angels helping people at rock bottom.

As a parent you never imagine being your child having to go through this and if I could have swapped with him, I would have done so in a heartbeat. The RVI have saved his life. Fact. If I hadn’t have taken him when I did this would be a very different story. I could never repay the hospital for saving Freddie’s life and the aftercare that he has received, and is still receiving, but I feel that I can do something to give back to help other children and parents in situations they never dreamt they’d be in.

How can you help?

I made a promise to myself whilst sat on the ward one day that I’d always raise money for this charity to help children and families in unimaginable situations. So, on the back of this I've arrange a spin bike to be delivered to the Reg Vardy Café area and on the 15th November at 11am we will start a 24 hour bike ride in the faculty. But I need your help to raise as much as possible. Please donate as much or as little as you can for this amazing charity.

Thank you to anyone wanting donate from myself and children like Freddie who go through things like this every day. I really really appreciate it and I’m so excited to raise as much as we can for the hospital!