On the 7^th May we will be taking on the Welsh 3 Peaks with 9 other Ty Hafan Mum’s. Our aim is to raise vital funds and increase awareness of Ty Hafan and the incredible work they do. 

All the amazing Mum’s here share a special bond: we all have, or have lost a child, who is life limited. Mum’s V Mountains symbolises the mountains we all have to climb which, thanks to Ty Hafan, we are supported in doing.

Everyone at the hospice plays a huge part in giving life limited and bereaved families a compassionate, and loving space, to come together. Not only for end of life care, but also for support, respite and fun.

We’ve chosen to set up a joint fundraiser because we’re not only Ty Hafan Mum’s, but we’re also good friends since our son’s, Kiegan and Joey, were in nursery together. Taking on the Welsh 3 Peaks will be a huge challenge for us, and every donation will be greatly appreciated by our families.

Thank you for reading our page, and please follow us at #mumsvmountains for our training and fundraising updates.

Kat’s Story

Hi! I’m Kat, and I’m Mum to Jaxon (14), Joey (9), Brody (2), step-mum to Harry (5) and wife to James.

Joey was born in 2013 and referred to Ty Hafan in 2014 after two PICU admissions for seizures. He has complex medical needs; including medicine resistant epilepsy, global development delay, dyskinetic movement disorder, cortical visual impairment and a VSP4A gene mutation. He is wheelchair dependent, non verbal and fed via feeding tube. 

He doesn’t have a diagnosis yet, and the first few years of his life were mainly spent in and out of hospital due to seizures and infections. But, since the placement of a vagal nerve stimulator in 2016, his condition is stable. And with hard work, and amazing support from health and education, he continues to make us all phenomenally proud of the progress he makes year on year.

Although Joey is described as ‘life-limited’, his personality is far from it! He loves music (he’s a HUGE AC/DC fan!), animals, messy play, and anything water related. Everyone falls for his infectious laugh, big hugs, cheeky personality and mischievous (sometimes naughty!) ways. 

Whenever we go to Ty Hafan we’re treated like family and everyone goes the extra mile to ensure that all our individual needs are met. Whether that be through sibling support, family support, play therapy, outreach hubs or activity days. Everyone is included, and it’s amazing to be able to have a chance to raise awareness for such an incredible place. 

Stacey’s Story

I'm Stacey, I have husband Stephen, and we have 7 children: Kaitlyn (14), Chloe-Jo (13), Dayton (12), Kiegan (10), Vinnie (7), Kayson (4), and Nova-Rai (10months). 

We became involved with Ty Hafan in 2013 when Kiegan was first born.

We thought he was a healthy baby, but at 3 months old he had pneumonia and we had to stay in hospital; and it all went from there. They found he had an unsafe swallow so he had to be ng (nasogastric) fed, and later went on to be gastrostomy peg fed. They also found that he was profoundly deaf and with impaired vision, but he was undiagnosed.

At the age of 1 Kiegan caught chicken pox, both on the inside and outside of the body. This caused Kiegan to have a 2 week stay in hospital on life support; but the fighter that he was, he came through. However, this caused him to have dystopia cerebral palsy and uncontrolled movements and with some more challenges with the thing he had already had.

We had 3 ½ amazing years with Kiegan, but he sadly passed away from aspiration and cardiac arrest.

Not only was Ty Hafan there for us when he was alive, but they are still there now with a fantastic bereavement team, and still continue to support and look after us 7 years on.