In September 2015, the UKH Foundation donated £5,000 to the Child Brain Injury Trust. Donations like this enable the Child Brain Injury Trust to support over 150 brain injured children and their whole families in the North West through the Regional Child and Family Support Service.
One of the children the UKH Foundation’s grant is helping to support is Daniel. Daniel, aged six, was out in the garden at home playing on a bouncy castle. Daniel’s dad, Bernie called him in for his dinner. When Daniel came in he dropped to the floor. Jenny, Daniel’s Mum, called an ambulance.
Daniel was rushed to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital; he had suffered a major bleed on the brain, and then suffered two more bleeds over the next five days. Daniel was in hospital for seven months, and during this time Daniel had 12 operations. He had to learn to walk and talk all over again. Doctors battled to save Daniel’s life. There were numerous health professionals trying to help but because of the shock, Bernie and Jenny said they were unable to process what they were told.
Thankfully the Child Brain Injury Trust was there to help make sense of it all. Hospital staff introduced Jenny and Bernie to Fiona, the charity’s Child and Family Support Co-ordinator for the North West. Fiona said “When you go into an acute hospital setting, it is very isolating. It is very disorientating. Being able to support families from those very early days and beyond is incredible.”
Jenny and Bernie described the charity’s support: “It is as if she (Fiona) waves a magic wand and everything is demystified. Everything becomes clear. You can speak to her on your level. She knows what you’re going through. If we didn’t understand what the doctors were talking about we’d ask Fiona.”
The Child Brain Injury Trust’s, Trusts and Foundations Fundraising Manager, Amber Fisher said: “Because of the UKH Foundation’s support, we are able to provide a mixture of practical and emotional support to whole families like Daniel’s. We are the only UK charity to provide long-term support no matter how severe the injury, the cause of the injury or the young person’s age. Our services are not means tested and we will never turn a child away. We receive no central Government funding so it’s only thanks to our donors that we can achieve this.”
To watch Daniel’s story please click here. You can learn more about how we help by clicking here. To learn more about the UKH Foundation click here.