Valerie's Story

“It’s been a year since the worst event in mine and my now husbands life, at four/five days old our daughter unexpectedly clinically died in my arms and needed to be resuscitated."

"She was sent up to the NICU in Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and we were put forward to get a room in the House. The relief of not having to worry about where we were going to stay overnight or how we were going to get ourselves something to eat was so helpful at that time. The staff were also lovely about me needing a mini fridge and fridge thermometer as the only thing I could do at the time to help our daughter was pump breastmilk. Everyone was lovely towards us regardless of what time we came in at night which one night was around 2am since our baby was being transferred from NICU to SCBU. We were asked how she was doing and they were genuinely happy for us when we got transferred closer to home. She sadly no longer fits her House t-shirt, my mum bought her t-shirt as a way to mark part of her journey as this is always going to be part of her life and her story. She seems to be hitting her milestones though her development will be monitored for a while yet. She’s even more squiggly now that she can crawl and walks holding on to surfaces.”

Valerie is always happy…

“As we come up to her first birthday and the anniversary of her incident I find myself getting quite emotional and I can’t help but think about the difference it made to us as a family. We made so many important phone calls in the House. I even had a midwife check on me in the Buttercup room (where we were staying). I just wanted to thank you all for helping us be close enough to her when we couldn’t be with her 24/7 and rush over when the hospital needed us to.”

Our wedding was something we looked forward to as a whole family…

“Valerie was our ring bearer. She was utterly fantastic the whole way through. It was our eight year anniversary and when we finally all had the same surname.”

“What happened with Valerie is such a mystery; every new doctor or medical professional we meet is amazed that they’ve got to meet ‘that baby’. Being able to be close to her means more than I can express. Some families might not realise it at the time but simply having somewhere to stay that’s right there is so incredibly helpful.”

“I just want to say thank you for everything you do for the families that come through your doors. Thank you for everything.”