Brothers organise obstacle course at nursery to say thank you to charity which kept them together

Two brothers have raised £1,230 to say thank you to The Sick Children’s Trust for supporting their family when two year-old Ethan was seriously ill in hospital, miles away from their home in Darlington.

Ethan, two, and Joshua, four, organised an obstacle course at Lowson Street preschool to raise money for The Sick Children’s Trust. Ethan’s brother Joshua, along with Mum Emma and Dad Steven, were supported with free ‘Home from Home’ accommodation at The Sick Children’s Trust’s Scott House when Ethan was being treated at Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

In April 2017, doctors discovered that Ethan had an enlarged heart. A few weeks later he was transferred from Darlington’s Memorial Hospital to Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital where they were told he had a narrowing of the main artery in his heart and would require major surgery. During this time, Ethan’s family were supported at Scott House for four nights where they were just a few minutes’ walk from his hospital bedside. Mum Emma says:

“It was really lovely because Ethan got to stay with us at Scott House the night before his surgery and this really helped to keep things as normal as possible for him - he had no idea he was going to theatre

“The staff were so empathetic and it was great to have someone to talk to. We met lots of other families and most of them were dealing with much more complex conditions than we were and this helped us to put our situation into perspective. As worried as we were, his operation would take 20 minutes for the actual procedure to be completed. In most cases that is it and no further operations are necessary if this is successful.

“It was such a relief to know we didn’t have to make the almost 40 mile journey to and from the hospital every day. This wouldn’t have been an option had we needed to get there quickly and having a room at Scott House meant we were just two minutes from Ethan’s bedside.

“Ethan is now doing really well and is back at preschool. We were delighted when their nursery teacher said they would support us with fundraising for The Sick Children’s Trust. Around 45 children took part in the obstacle course and it was a great day! The boys really enjoyed playing with all of their friends and I’m so proud of them for raising such an incredible amount of money from the event.

“Our next fundraising event will be a Big Chocolate Tea garden party for my 30^th birthday and we are hoping to raise enough money to fund the rooms at Scott House for the four nights we were there. I would like to say thank you to the local businesses which have been so supportive of our fundraising and have donated prizes for our raffle which will be drawn at my birthday garden party next month.”

The Sick Children’s Trust supports around 4,000 families every year and relies entirely on voluntary donations to do this. It costs the charity £30 to support a family for one night. Andrew Leadbitter, Scott House Manager, says:

“We’d like to say a huge thank you to Ethan, Joshua and their family for their fantastic fundraising efforts. We’re thrilled to hear that the event was a huge success and the children had lots of fun. Ethan and his family have popped in to visit us since he had his operation and it’s great to see him looking so well. The family have also bought Scott House items from our wish list so we can continue making the house homely for the families currently staying with us.”

The Sick Children’s Trust runs ten ‘Homes from Home’ across the UK, two of which are in Newcastle, Scott House at Freeman Hospital and Crawford House at The Royal Victoria Infirmary.

For further information about The Sick Children’s Trust, please visit: www.sickchildrenstrust.org and to purchase tickets for Emma’s charity raffle, please click here: https://m.facebook.com/events/154008191825246