As you may or may not know, we are holding to give back to the BC
Children's Hospital. I am a parent of a five-year old girl named
Nevaeh who was hospitalized at 5 weeks old (being 7weeks premature)
for Viral Encephalitis and Viral Meningitis. The first week of her
stay she was sedated and completely dependant on life support and we
were not allowed in her isolation room as it would risk passing her
sickness to other children. At one point we were told that we would go
into her room and hold our baby for what might be the last time. These
were the hardest hours of my life as I thought being a first time
parent was supposed to be full of joy and happy surprises. We went and
saw her every chance they would let us and we were shocked. One
morning we got up, went for breakfast and routinely went and visited
our precious baby girl and there was no longer a tube down her throat
and my instant thought was they had given up on trying any longer, but
I was wrong. My swollen, sedated 7.5week old daughter no longer
depended on life support but had gotten stronger and was able to
breathe on her own. After what seemed like forever, we heard the most
amazing words, it was time to take her home! What started off as a
devastating journey ended in one of the happiest moments of my life.
While she was a patient at BC Children's Hospital we had someone very
generously pay for us to stay in a family room as well as give us a
daily food allowance that we otherwise could not afford.
We are
now holding a fundraiser on June 14th, 2014 at the Phoenix Lounge in
Abbotsford, BC to raise funds so we will be able to give back to BC
Children's Hospital and hopefully expand to many other hospitals in
BC. Without the help we received we would have been unable to stay
even in the same city as our daughter because the expense was too high
and the commute was too far.
Our daughter shared her concern as we explained the situation to her a few days after her fifth birthday and she decided she wants to give her toys to the children at the hospital to make them happy. We helped her understand that this was not ideal as the germs spread from toy to child are discouraged, so instead our goal is to use the funds raised to purchase entertainment items new for the hospital that the patients can enjoy during their stay.
We have an event on facebook called "Nevaeh's Giving
Back" that you can look more at if interested but our goal
outside the fundraiser is to raise $5000.00 to put towards purchasing
items such as gift cards for the parents and families to help ease the
expense while their child is admitted to the hospital. The link to our
event is below:
https://www.facebook.com/events/301131443373823/
My name is Rebecca Dean and I am asking you from the bottom of
my heart to please share my story so we can achieve our goal!
Sincerely,
Rebecca Dean
604 613 0216