I was born at 27 weeks gestation weighing only 880g which is less than a bag of sugar. I spent the first 6 months of my life in 3 different hospitals where the nurses helped me fight for my life.

Due to being premature, I had to be fed through a tube… I would have tried bottle if I could but unfortunately I was too ill and was ventilated for 3 months which has slowed down my learning skills.

I made it home in time to spend Christmas with my mum and dad. I am still on oxygen so they have got to shield me over winter. I still have my feeding tube, and only take a small amount orally. I’m not a fan of bottles or solids which means I am dependent on my tube.
The tube has now become a big part of my life to enable me to get big and strong but it also causes a lot of issues. It restricts me from my daily activities and makes me vomit/gag a lot. Having my tube or tapes replaced is a stressful time for both myself and parents and the tapes don’t last long so this has to be done on a weekly basis. If my tube falls out, this means we have to take trip to the hospital to get it replaced so I don’t go hungry.

The NHS have been great so far but unfortunately can’t provide the resources to be able to wean me off my tube, so my parents want to take part in the Notube program. Notube is a non-profit organisation that specialises in eating disorders and weaning children off their feeding tubes which has helped hundreds of children from around the world wean off their tube with a 90% success rate.

This is why my parents are raising funds through Tree of Hope, a children's charity that supports families to fundraise for medical treatments not available through the UK health care system so we can sign up to this programme. This treatment could give me the opportunity to lead a better quality of life. If you wish, you can follow my journey through instagram, blake_dickens2022.

Whatever you can contribute will be so very gratefully received to help and support us to try and improve Blake’s ability to learn how to eat orally without aversions.

 
7.5% of all donations to Tree of Hope in relation to this appeal will be allocated to the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope to cover our core operating costs.

If we raise insufficient funds, or surplus funds, then the funds will be used, if appropriate, to fund support for our child’s needs in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objects. If in those circumstances we are unable to use all or part of the funds for the benefit of our child in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objectives, then any funds that cannot be used will be transferred to be used for the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.