The Brighter Futures charity has set out to raise £175,000 for specialist equipment to help care for babies on the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) at Great Western Hospital.
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s charity wants to fund five state-of-the-art incubators for SCBU. The new equipment will help provide neonatal care to more than 450 babies born at the hospital every year who need additional support in the first few days of their lives.
The new incubators have a number of innovative features, including a hood that can be opened with just one finger, an adjustable height so that parents can get closer to, and have more contact with, their babies, and even an iPod port so parents can play soft music or the sound of their own voice to their babies.
Brighter Futures will be working in partnership with local charity New Life, which is dedicated to raising money for special care baby units, to help reach the £175,000 target.
Trevor Goodall set up New Life in 1995 in memory of his sons who were born three months prematurely and died a week later: “I am delighted to be working with Brighter Futures on this appeal as it remains very close to my heart. We will do all we can to help achieve the £175,000 total as quickly as possible.”
Catherine Newman is Head of Brighter Futures: “Everyone deserves the best start in life, and we know these incubators will provide the latest technology to support our staff in SCBU and make things just that little bit easier for parents to spend time with their babies.”
“Raising £175,000 will allow us to replace five of the 10 existing incubators in SCBU and we’re delighted to have the support of New Life to help us reach this goal.”
Dr Sarah Bates is a Consultant Neonatologist at GWH: “These incubators use the very latest technology to help the neonatal team to give the very smallest and sickest babies the best chance at a healthy future.”
“Evidence shows that, for these babies, having contact with their parents early on is very beneficial, and these incubators support that in a very special way.”
To make a donation to the Brighter Futures SCBU Incubator Appeal, text SCBU18 followed by the amount you want to donate to 70070, visit the appeal page at the Brighter Futures website or call the Brighter Futures team on 01793 605631.
Meanwhile the charity’s ongoing Radiotherapy Appeal – ‘Bringing cancer care closer’- has now got just under three-quarters of a million pounds to go to reach its £2,900,000 target.
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