The Ledingham Family Story

This Christmas, the Ledingham family have kindly shared their story with us, reflecting back to last Christmas when they found themselves far from home…

Far from home

Jamie and Carolyn Ledingham from Inverness never thought their first Christmas with their little twins, Ewan and Megan, would be spent over 170 miles away from their home.

Earlier that year, a 20-week scan in Inverness revealed that Ewan had a congenital heart condition known as Transposition of the Great Arteries which would require surgery in Glasgow. However, events took an unexpected turn when the twins arrived seven weeks early, resulting in a rushed trip from their Highland home down to the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.

“We’d always hoped to stay at the House as we knew about Ewan’s condition in advance, and one of the nurses had mentioned the Charity. Thank goodness she did, as it turned out to be an absolute godsend.”

Jamie and Carolyn’s five month stay with us was much longer than they ever expected, having arrived in November and not checking out till the following April.

“It would have been extremely expensive to stay locally all that time. Going and back and forth to Inverness regularly was out of the question. If we had been split apart, the toll on us mentally and physically doesn’t bear thinking about – especially with all the Covid-19 restrictions that we would have had to take on board.”

Home away from home

“Ewan had a number of severe complications resulting in a prolonged stay in intensive care. But the gift of us only being a heartbeat from him at the House – it just made us feel like we were all going to be okay.”

Jamie and Carolyn treasured the ‘home from home’ experience whether walking to the fridge at 3am to get some feed for Megan or just being able to cook their own food – including Christmas lunch.

It costs £45 a night for a family, like the Ledinghams, to rest their heads in one of our 31 twin en-suite bedrooms after a stressful day (or night) on the ward. However, we can only be here for them through the generosity of our supporters and our own fundraising efforts as we don’t receive any government or NHS funding. A gift from you today will mean we can shine the light of kindness to many more families that will need our shelter this Christmas to keep close to their little angels five minutes away in hospital.