Early December 2018 Leanne was transferred to The Royal London Hospital where her son, Adam, was born premature at only 26 weeks old. Following his birth baby Adam had to stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for six weeks over the Christmas and New Year period. Leanne tells us about her experience:
“Being on the NICU ward was a very strange way to spend Christmas but it was lovely with the nurses playing Christmas songs. We got to hold Adam for the first time on Christmas Eve, because when he was born he was so tiny we weren’t able to hold him for two weeks. The nurses made everything really special.
“Even though it was a bit of a strange year, the hospital staff were all lovely and we really appreciate the fact that they were all working on Christmas Day. It was a very different Christmas but considering how scary and everything was at the time they made us feel very at ease.”
“The reason we give to the Christmas Gift Appeal is because when Adam was in NICU we actually got a little gift left on his incubator, a little giraffe comforter that he still has now. We’ll always remember that and want to be able to do the same for somebody else.
“Every baby had something which was just a really nice touch because it’s not how you think you’re going to spend Christmas, so it just makes it a little bit nicer.
“For someone who is going through a particularly difficult time, sometimes the smallest things can make you smile. We always used to try and look for something nice every day whilst we were in hospital and a Christmas gift could be someone’s positive.”
“We really appreciated the gift from Barts Charity was because with everything going on and the fact he was really very poorly, we hadn’t actually bought Adam any Christmas gifts ourselves so it was particularly lovely to think that someone else had been thinking of us.”
Three years on Leanne’s and her husband Paul are looking forward to celebrating both Adam’s birthday and Christmas this December. Support families like Leanne’s spending this Christmas in hospital and give a gift today.
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