The funds have been raised by Friends of SCBU to buy equipment which supports a baby’s own breathing efforts by gently inflating the lungs and helping to keep them open.
The equipment often prevents a baby from needing full ventilation and is used as a tool to wean infants off such a need.
The fund-raising was organised by Friends of SCBU chairman Kathy Harries and vice-chairman Joanne Currie, and included a summer ball at the Pomme d’Or Hotel which raised £9,500. Support for the project was also given by the Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Ashburton, and Citibank, whose staff raised funds on dress-down days.
Brodie Train, whose daughter Bramble spent time in the Special Care Baby Unit, raised £1,900 by walking the West Highland Way. The funds were also boosted by a cake sale and bucket collections, as well as money raised in Scotland by relatives of Joanne Currie.
Kathy Harries came into contact with the Special Care Baby Unit when her twins, Gemma and Jason, were born in 1988 and needed support. Joanne Currie’s son Zak (3), who was born in April 2007, also benefited greatly from the team’s care. Zak was a twin with Joseph, who died several weeks later.
Both women have lasting gratitude to the unit’s staff for the wonderful care which they and their babies received, and decided to raise funds for the equipment as a way of giving something back. Joanne said that they were delighted with the support they had received during the fund-raising.
‘This is our way of giving something back in the knowledge that it will help other parents and their babies in the future,’ she said.
SCBU’s clinical manager Anne Patterson said that the efforts of the fundraisers had been outstanding. ‘Their commitment to this project has been fantastic,’ she said.
• See more Islanders featured in today’s JEP
