Family return to Children's Hospital with donation to thank staff

A fundriaisng father who ran the Potters Arf Marathon for UHNM Charity has returned to SCH to thank staff for providing ‘amazing care’ to his daughter.

Laurence Shave from Madeley ran the 13.1-mile course in an impressive 2.05.05 to raise funds for the children’s hospital who cared for daughter Nancy who’s now 20 months old.

Laurence said: “Our lives changed forever on Boxing Day 2022 when we found our daughter unable to breathe in bed. We rushed her to hospital as we knew how serious it was. She was initially on the High Dependency Unit but then transferred to the Children’s Intensive Care Unit (CICU) on 28 December.”

“We found out that Nancy had several infections including strep A, flu A, swine flu, and covid-19. This had caused her her lungs to become severely infected and she developed pneumonia and sepsis. Nancy was unable to breathe on her own, and required high levels of ventilation.”

“We then endured the worst night of our lives as parents on New Years Eve, when we told they were unable to ventilate our daughter, and that it was unlikely she would make it. I can’t remember the exact details, but I do remember saying goodbye to my daughter as they struggled to keep her alive.”

“It was then discussed with us that the only option for Nancy would be a procedure called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO. I had never heard of this, but in short it’s an artificial lung life support machine. Thankfully, her referral was accepted by the ECMO team in Leicester. They completed the surgery required and saved our daughter’s life.”

“I wanted to run the Potters ‘Arf this summer to help raise money for the amazing care Nancy received whilst at Staffordshire Children’s Hospital at Royal Stoke.”

Laurence’s run raised a fantastic £1,000 for CICU.