This is little J and he is 10 months old. With that infectious smile his nurses describe him as a ‘delightful little baby’ who loves interacting.
He hasn’t had the easiest start in life, having been diagnosed with a very rare genetic condition which affects his lungs. It has caused lots of respiratory infections and he has spent a lot of the last seven months in hospital. He is always connected to an oxygen tank and he is fed via a tube into his stomach for 22 hours of the day. Every three weeks he spends 3-5 days in hospital receiving intravenous medication to improve the function of his lungs so his Mum and doting Grandma have a busy schedule of hospital appointments and round-the-clock care for this little lad.
J is under the care of the wonderful nurses from the Children’s Hospital at Home team in Croydon, a regular referral partner of ours. They contacted us to ask whether we were able to provide a cot and bedding bundle for him and tentatively asked if we might have a buggy that could accommodate all his medical equipment.
A very generous donation
As it happens, a few months ago we were contacted by the great people at Bugaboo, who had heard about what we do and wanted to make a product donation. Bugaboo make award-winning, quality pushchairs so we were thrilled to accept the 39 brand-new Bugaboo Donkey pushchair sets they were keen to share.
Our resident buggy expert, Graham assembled the pushchairs and commented that they were a joy to put together, very simple and great quality.
One of the things that makes Bugaboo pushchairs so practical is the storage they offer which you can see on a Bugaboo Donkey with its luggage basket alongside the seat. While this is a useful feature for every parent, this storage is ideal for children like J who have essential medical equipment to transport. These pram systems are a great solution but sadly often outside the price range of a family already struggling to balance work with full-time medical care.
It was great to be able to provide one to J and his family with best wishes from Team Stork and his brilliant nurse Jacqui was delighted to collect it.
Working together
We needed some temporary extra space to store the pushchairs, so we contacted our friends at Toy Barnhaus who we partner with for our Christmas campaign, Santa Stork. They have a warehouse locally and kindly agreed to store the pushchairs for us, delivering them as and when we needed them. Great partnership working and we thank them for their kindness.
We were keen to ensure these pram systems would get to the families who could really benefit, so we worked with our friends at Baby Basics in Englefield Green, The Extra Mile, First Days and Ten Little Toes to fulfil some of their referrals too. Families across Surrey and beyond benefitted from this kindness.
Freedom machine
We were thrilled to be able to provide J’s mum with a brand-new Bugaboo. His oxygen tank fits neatly into the compartment so they can get out and about. There is no known cure for J’s condition, but his nurses are hopeful that things may become a bit clearer as he gets older.
Our referral partner got in touch to say that Mum is ‘so appreciative of the Stripey Stork donations and looking forward to the potential for enjoying some fun over the summer when J is well enough to go out in his pushchair.’
His family are doing their best to give him the care-free and fun-filled childhood that all children deserve. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Bugaboo for playing a part in making this possible.
If you are a company or brand and would like to find out more about how to donate items to Stripey Stork, please visit our website
*(Photo shared with parent’s permission).
