FIGHTER TOT GEORGIE RAISES £500 FOR CHARITY THAT KEPT PARENTS BY HIS SIDE

A little Billingham boy who is awaiting a kidney transplant has raised £500 for the charity that has kept his family together during two years of treatment at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI).

At just one-day-old, Georgie Haycock, now two-years-old, underwent surgery due to a complex bladder condition called obstructive uropathy, where his bladder was blocked from passing urine, thus causing the urine to back up into the kidneys which made them swollen. Georgie spent the first two weeks of his life in the RVI's Intensive Care Unit (ICU), another six weeks on the Renal ward and wasn't able to come home until he was eight-weeks-old.

During this time, Mum Lauren and her partner, George, were provided with a free-of-charge room in The Sick Children's Trust's 'Home from Home' Crawford House. Crawford House meant that the couple could stay close to Georgie while he recovered from the major surgery and stay together as a family; something which the charity believes significantly improves the recovery of seriously ill children.

Lauren, along with friends and family, threw a Big Chocolate Tea Party to support the charity's campaign to raise £100,000 to help run the ten 'Homes from Home' across the country. She says:

"We have stayed at Crawford House three times as Georgie has been in and out of the RVI since he was born. It has meant a lot to us that Crawford house was available, as you can imagine when your child gets ill you want to be by their side 24/7."

Georgie, who spent his first Christmas in hospital, is now on dialysis five times a week and is awaiting a kidney transplant from Dad George which will happen only once Georgie puts on enough weight. Lauren continues:

"We live a good 45 minutes away from Newcastle and because Georgie's admissions were quite serious a number of times we needed to be as close as possible. We had some of the hardest and longest months of our lives when we were staying at Crawford House over Christmas when Georgie became seriously ill with bronchiolitis. He just couldn't cope any longer. But he beat the odds and pulled through."

The Sick Children's Trust runs two houses in Newcastle supporting families with sick children at both the RVI and Freeman Hospital. The charity, which helped over 3500 families last year country-wide, provides free, high-quality 'Home from Home' accommodation, as well as emotional and practical support, to families with sick children in hospital in the UK.

Lauren and her family want to help the charity by raising money through The Big Chocolate Tea Party to help other families in need. If you would like to find out more about how you could support, please visit: http://www.sickchildrenstrust.org/

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