Joshua Carr

Joshua's The new years day dip 2018

Fundraising for Ronald McDonald House Charities
£610
raised of £100 target
Donations cannot currently be made to this page
The new years day dip 2018, 1 January 2018
Ronald McDonald House Charities

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RCN England and Wales (802047), Scotland (SC040717)
We provide free accommodation for families to keep them close to their sick child

Story

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As some of you may know, Christmas 2014 wasn’t a very good one for us.

At just 9 weeks old Freddie became very poorly. On Christmas Eve we took him to our GP as we had concerns. We was told to go home and pack a bag and take him straight to the children’s ward at our local hospital, where a bed would be waiting for him. He had bronchitis which was effecting his breathing and hadn't had a feed in days.

We spent 3 days there, will them all trying everything they possibly could, but Freddie was deteriorating. He was struggling to breathe and his tiny body was starting to give up on him. On boxing day I received a call whilst at work, telling me I needed to get to the hospital. Once I arrived all our family was around him, and then I could see just how poorly he had got. It all happened so fast, only a few hours earlier whilst I was with him he wasn’t that bad.
Out of nowhere several nurses, doctors, theatre staff came flooding In. I don’t know what was happening but the screams coming from my boy is a sound I will never ever forget. He was then whisked off to theatre where he would be put into a medically induced coma and transferred to kings college hospital in London. We was told he would be out of theatre in about 45minutes where we could see him. However they struggled to stabilise him, 6 hours later after a lot of worrying we was allowed to see him. He looked to peaceful. The first time in days we had seen him not screaming and crying. He wasn’t in pain. He wasn’t struggling to breathe. He looked just like a normal
9 week old baby, but then we was all the tubes and wires hanging from his mouth, arms, legs... he was covered.
Then the transfer company came and he was taken to London. By the time we arrived was early hours of the morning. We had no way of sorting accommodation out so we just slept on floors by his hospital room. The next day we was told about the Ronald McDonald houses. We was told they had a room available for us to stay in. The house was minutes away from the hospital so we was always close to him. Although we didn’t leave his side often, we always his a nice, warm bed to come back too. We had a place to wash, eat/cook, wash our clothes and just unwind after listening to hospital machines beeping all day.

We was able to have our daughter who was only 3 at the time and other family members come and stay for the day. We could have her stay but with there being so many poorly babies we decided against this.

We always had somewhere to go back too and try feel as “normal” as possible and a chance to talk to people in similar suitations as you. It took a huge weight of our shoulders mentally and financially. We stayed here for just over two
Weeks and no one excpected a penny. Everything they do and provide is all down to donations. It truly is a “home from home”.

We will forever be thankful for everything Ronald McDonald house, camberwell has done for us as a family.

So I will be doing the New Year’s Day dip to help raise money for this amazing charity who made the worst few
Weeks of our lives, a lot more bareable.
So please donate, even a small donation will made a huge difference to a lot of families just like mine.
I am always thankful for all the donations that were made that enabled us to stay so close to our little boy. We spent just over 2 weeks here in till he was well enough to be transferred back to our local hospital.He is a healthy 3 year old now

Thank you in advance for your generous support and donations.


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About the charity

Ronald McDonald House Charities

Verified by JustGiving

RCN England and Wales (802047), Scotland (SC040717)
Ronald McDonald House Charities UK is an independent charity providing free 'home away from home’ accommodation for families with children in hospital. Thanks to your donations, we are able to provide up to 530 families with accommodation each night so they can be together no matter what.

Donation summary

Total raised
£609.50
+ £88.63 Gift Aid
Online donations
£609.50
Offline donations
£0.00

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