Our son Aidan was tragically diagnosed with a rare genetic
disease called mitochondrial disease, at just one year old. There is no
treatment and no cure for this disease, he was a terminally ill child. Aidan passed away at the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital,
Brighton on 1st March 2014.

We spent Aidan’s last Christmas in 2013 as a family at the Royal Alex. We were hoping that Aidan would be able to come home for a few hours but as the big day drew nearer, it became clear he would not manage a few hours without his ventilator.

The dedicated children’s hospital nurses are amazing and we’ll never forget their joy and warmth at Christmas. There was also a visit of Father Christmas on the ward. Alas, due to funding issues, a Christmas dinner was not provided for families unfortunate enough to have a sick child in hospital at Christmas time. Therefore, with the stress of the situation we found ourselves in, the last thing we wanted was to not be able to share a Christmas meal together as a family!

In Aidan’s memory and as parents, it was our overwhelming aim to provide the funding for a Christmas dinner in future, and extra treats for parents and carers. We felt this would leave a legacy for Aidan and the brilliant nurses who cared for our son.

As a result, we decided to talk to nursing staff at the Alex and the Rockinghorse Charity (based at the Royal Alex) about our experience and what we could do to make it better. We wanted to provide each family in the hospital on Christmas Day with a hot meal cooked for them, plus presents for parents in a hamper. And so, the Aidan's Christmas Dinner Project was born.

To date, we have raised over £24,000 for the project and we have provided 200 Christmas Dinners for families over the last seven years, plus a further 90 hampers this Christmas.  We also ensure families with sick babies being cared for in the Trevor Mann Special Care Baby Unit and the Special Care Baby Unit in at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath  also receive a Christmas dinner and a hamper of goodies. Parents of inpatients at Chalkhill Mental Health Unit also receive a hamper and this year, for the first time, we will also be delivering hampers to parents spending Christmas on Bluefin Ward at Worthing Hospital.

Every year, around Christmas Eve, we visit theAlex and hand out hampers of luxury food –including handmade mince pies,
brownies, tea and coffee, and a cafetiere. We also let them know that, should their child still be in hospital over Christmas, we have an amazing team ofvolunteers who will be busy preparing a festive buffet in the Ronald McDonald House at the Alex on Christmas Day. All the food for this is funded by Aidan’s Christmas Dinners.

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