Laura shares her story on why she is supporting our Helping Little Heartbeats appeal to fund equipment so children with heart conditions can be treated locally by our specialist paediatric team instead of having to travel into London

"Last May, my youngest son Benjamin fell over at home and knocked out his front tooth on our bed post just a couple of weeks before his 2nd birthday. A week later his face swelled up and he was given antibiotics for an abscess which had developed as a result of his injury. A few days later he developed a high fever which lasted five days - he wasn’t really eating and became very lethargic so we took him to A&E at Lister Hospital and he was admitted for tests. They didn’t know what was wrong with him and there were a couple of serious conditions they needed to rule out, both of which can damage the heart so he was given a heart scan by Dr Dhelaria. We were so lucky that we had to just walk down a corridor for this scan. It was incredibly thorough and thankfully showed no heart damage both at the time and 6 months later at his follow up appointment.

"To have had to pack up and drive into a central London hospital for the ultrasound, dealing with parking and congestion charges, or travelling on public transport with a sick child would have probably tipped me over the edge at what was a really worrying and stressful time. Looking back, I just took it for granted that this piece of equipment was available to us but if it hadn’t been, it would have made a tough experience even harder.

"I’m really hopeful Lister Hospital manages to raise the funds it needs for this equipment as it really will make a huge difference to local parents whose children are in need of cardiac services both now and in the future."

Thank you, Laura, for your support and for sharing your story.

If you want to help us fund equipment to save children with heart conditions and their families the added stress of travelling into London for treatment, please support our Helping Little Heartbeats appeal. Thank you.