The Royal Surrey’s Special Care Baby Unit Helped by Two Fundraising Four-year-olds

Published on: 27 Aug, 2018
Updated on: 29 Aug, 2018

The Royal Surrey’s superstar fundraisers Riley Russell and Emilia Freeman with staff from SCBU at Royal Surrey.

Riley Russell and Emilia Freeman, two four-year-olds from Guildford and Woking, raised £220 for the Royal Surrey County Hospital’s Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU).

Riley and Emilia ran 2km to raise money for Guildford’s specialised unit. Their money will provide funding for new welcome packs for the parents of babies staying at the unit.

The two had the idea of the fundraiser themselves and wanted to take on a challenge that would help Royal Surrey’s most vulnerable babies. Both Riley and Emilia had themselves been in the care of the Unit after their births.

Emilia explained, in a press release, how, “I wanted to do the run so I could help raise money to help the poorly babies like mummy does.”

Their money has gone to the charity Positive Touch, which was set up in 2012 by SCBU staff and parents who have been cared for by the unit. With it, new welcome packs have been bought, which are essential for parents who will need to stay at the unit for prolonged periods of time.

They contain notebooks, pens, hand cream, lip balm, a snack, tissues, water bottle and puzzle books. The packs form part of the support given to parents whose babies require high dependency care.

Fiona England, the SCBU practice development sister, explained: “Riley and Emilia’s little steps have made such a difference to our new SCBU families. The welcome packs have been made with the love and empathy of parents who understand what having a baby or babies on SCBU really feels like.”

In addition to the welcome packs, Positive Touch volunteers support parents by visiting families in the unit on a weekly basis and holding monthly coffee mornings for any families who have had a baby on there, to give them an opportunity to meet others and share experiences.

They also provide snacks for parents and families, welcome and discharge packs, milestone cards and graduation certificates.

Mrs England feels “we feel very lucky here at Royal Surrey to have the support of Positive Touch helping us improve the experience of being on a Neonatal Unit for babies and their family.”

For more information on Positive Touch does and how to support them go to www.positive-touch.co.uk, or find them on Facebook.