Comfort’s story: Coming home to a safe place to sleep

Comfort had just turned one, having spent most of her life in a specialist high dependency ward, with Mum by her side. Born at just 23 weeks, she was sadly the only surviving baby from a set of triplets. After a highly stressful and emotional time in hospital, the long-awaited news finally came: Comfort was ready to come home.

However, her family had nothing for her at home. Money has been extremely tight for the family, with Mum unable to work due to the trauma and all the time they were spending in hospital. Meanwhile, Dad had been working nights, sometimes 7 days a week, to try and make ends meet. They had hardly dared to imagine the day would come that she’d be strong enough to be discharged.

Children’s nursing services in Croydon knew they needed to act quickly to make sure everything was ready. The top priority was to source a cot – without a safe place for Comfort to sleep, she simply could not leave the hospital.

That’s when Sarah from Children’s Hospital at Home (CHAH) stepped in. She sent an urgent request to Stripey Stork, fully aware that there’s often a waiting list for cots. She made plans to collect the other most-needed items like clothing and a highchair from our Reigate warehouse, hoping that a cot would be available at such short notice.

Sarah’s timing couldn’t have been better. Recent funding had allowed us to purchase some cots and brand-new mattresses, meaning we could meet this extra special request for baby Comfort. When Sarah saw the cot, she was overjoyed because she knew what this would mean to the family:

“Everyone is waiting nervously back on the ward because everything hangs on this. They won’t believe it. You’re literally changing lives – they can finally be a family again.”

Volunteer Jane, who had been thoughtfully preparing the items for Comfort, was on hand to add the perfect finishing touches: a musical cot mobile to help soothe Comfort to sleep, and some bedding and pyjamas to keep her warm.

Within 24 hours, Comfort was home with her family. The family reached out to let us know just how grateful they were:

“Having a safe space for Comfort to sleep means the world to us. She sleeps so well in her warm cot and snuggly pyjamas, with her mobile lullaby sending her to sleep every night. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, I will never forget the help you have given us.”

Upon hearing this feedback, volunteer Jane added:

“It’s such a relief to know that we could make up this sleep bundle and know that this baby could come home for the very first time.”

How you can help…

This year, we’re participating in the Big Give Christmas Challenge to raise funds so that every child referred to us from Surrey and Croydon has a safer, warm place to sleep in 2025. During the campaign, which runs from 3 – 10 December 2024, every donation will be doubled.

You can sign up to make a Pledge Commitment and we’ll contact you to let you know when the campaign is live.

The link to DONATE during the campaign week is: www.bit.ly/big-give-stripey2024

TOGETHER, we can double the impact of our work and help families like Comfort’s thrive.