On Sunday 13th February John and Grace (age 7) will be cycling from Eastbourne train station to the bottom of Beachy Head at Holywell to Sovereign Harbour and then back to Eastbourne Train Station to help raise funds for Tiny Tickers to purchase Pulse Oximetry machines for Eastbourne DGH and Hastings Conquest. This is a round trip of about 10 miles or so. This is Grace's first fundraiser of this sort where she's doing a challenging cycle ride for her age. But she's keen to challenge herself and hopes you'll sponsor us accordingly.

Finally, after many years of us and others trying, East Sussex NHS Trust (Eastbourne DGH & Hastings Conquest) have agreed to do Pulse Oximetry testing on new born babies from March 2022. 

They are one of the last NHS Trusts in the country to do this! However they are keen to make up for lost time and require several Pulse Oximetry machines both for use in hospital and mobile ones for midwives to use outside for home births and home checks. Tiny Tickers can provide the machines for free to the Trust, purchased through donations, and they also get a discount from the supplier as they buy so many for all the hospitals around the country, so it's better value for money.

A baby is born with a serious heart condition every two hours in the UK and despite congenital heart disease (CHD) being one of the biggest killers of infants, only around half of congenital heart defects are picked up during routine prenatal scanning. With your help we can help Eastbourne DGH and Hastings Conquest provide a safety net for the 1,000 babies each year that leave hospital with their heart defect undetected by providing Pulse Oximetry machines that will increase detection rates, improving a baby’s chances of survival and long-term quality of life.

John's son (Grace's brother), Sebastian, was born with an undetected CHD. This went undetected (due to not having pulse oximetry testing in place) until Sebastian was 3 months old and caused various health issues in that time including poor weight gain, poor growth and tiredness. Then at 3 months old Sebastian succumbed to bronchiolitis, collapsed and had to be blue lighted to hospital. It was only during this time in A&E that his loud heart murmur was detected that then led to the diagnosis of a CHD. Since then Sebastian has had 2 open heart surgeries (OHS) which have made a huge difference. He continues to have a CHD, known as Subaortic Stenosis, that causes issues and will likely require a 3rd OHS sometime in 2022. But he is now a generally happy and healthy 5 year old.

Pulse Oximetry testing is completely painless. It is similar to having a heart monitor clip put on the end of your finger; that quick and that simple. And yet it can have a life saving effect for a baby that has an undiagnosed CHD.

So please give what you can, and help the babies of East Sussex being born with undiagnosed CHDs to have the best chance of life. Thank you.