Alex Henderson
Alex's page
Fundraising for Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal
Story
Four weeks before my darling daughter was born, my good friend Jess gave birth to a little boy called Leo. Heartbreakingly, Leo was with us for only a brief time but taught me so much about what it is to love and be loved and how blessed I am to have two healthy, happy children.
Jess, Paul and their family have been so brave and couragous and I am so full of love and admiration for this wonderful family. So when Jess asked if I would join her to do a sky dive on Leo's birthday (5 Aug when he would have been 2 years old) how could I say no?
So on 5 Aug Jess, Charlie and me will be skydiving from 13,000ft (2 miles high) to raise money for intensive care cots for the Bristol Childrens Hospital to help save other babies like Leo.
For those of you who don't know Leo's story, here it is in the words of his Mum, my courageous and wonderful friend, Jess.
LEO JAMES O'CONNOR
5TH AUGUST 2010 - 19TH AUGUST 2011
"Little Leo the lion was born in water at the RUH. 2 weeks after his birth he was taken back into hospital with suspected septic spots on his bottom and was kept in for 7 days with a course of amoxycillin.
All was then presumed fine.
But, little did we know that HOSPITAL was going to be a regular feature in our lives. At 2 1/2 months (October 2010) Leo caught chicken-pox from his older brother, which was unlucky/unlikely as he was a purely breast-feed baby from birth. By the the 18th Oct the chicken-pox had move on to another level and we rushed him into hospital with suspected septicemia. Within 24hrs his situation had got worse, and the septicemia had gone to the brain and also a diagnosis of meningitus had been given. He/We were all rushed to Intensive Care at Bristol Childrens Hospital. He was kept in a closed room at Bristol as they said they had never seen a case of chicken-pox that bad in all the years and was highly contagious.
The stay at Bristol Childrens Hospital was one that we thought may not turn out well, but we prayed and we prayed and we cried, and we prayed some more.
Our prayers must have been heard as Leo got better slowly, we had our miracle. The stay at Bristol lasted just short of 2 months and we got home for the christmas month.
Leo seemed to have recovered remarkably from the meningitus but as the septicemia had scarred his brain he was left with epilepsy and would have to take medication for this.
In January 2011, Leo had a month of spasms which the RUH were un-able to treat and again we spent 7 days at Bristol Childrens Hospital. Within 24hrs they had managed to treat and stop his spasm.
On discharge from Bristol, Leo's medication changed and all was well again.
On the 12th April Leo was having problems breathing and we took him straight to the RUH and his diagnosis was pneumonia. Leo made a good/quick recovery and was discharged a week later.
We get to go home......
All was well and we had a beautiful time together.
But on the week of Leo's 1st Birthday he got poorly again and on the 5TH AUGUST 2011 we took him into the RUH. Again the diagnosis was pneumonia.
On his stay at the RUH Leo progressively got worse and was taken to Bristol Childrens Hospital around the 11th/12th AUGUST.
From that moment Leo never got better and went to heaven on the 19th August 2011/."
Thanks for taking the time to visit my Just Giving page.
Please help me to support Jess and raise money in memory of the brave little Leo the Lion. Your money will really help The Royal Hospital for Children, Bristol to continue all the great work they do to help children and babies like Leo. So please dig deep!!!
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
So please dig deep and donate now.