Hopefully, you caught it on our socials this week, but we are really pleased to announce that after a whole bunch of nominations, shortlisting and over 250 votes, our Charity of the Year for 2021 is Tiny Tickers!
Here is a little more about them, and the fantastic work they do:
Tiny Tickers is a small national charity that works to improve the chances of babies born with a serious heart condition. We want every baby with a serious heart condition to have the best chance of survival and quality of life. Founded in 1999 by world-renowned fetal cardiologist Dr Helena Gardiner, she realised many of the babies she was caring for could have been helped earlier.
One in every 125 babies is born with a heart problem but fewer than half of those are spotted during pregnancy. Over 1,000 newborns leave hospitals in the UK every year with no one realising they have a potentially life-threatening heart condition. Babies with undetected heart defects will often fall into the early stages of heart failure – significantly impacting their long-term quality of life. Some will die before anyone realises they have a poorly heart, or before getting the surgery that would save them.
What they do:
- Fund vital life-saving equipment – by placing pulse oximetry machines in maternity wards we aim to improve detection at birth.
- They are the sole provider of hospital-based fetal cardiac screening training for sonographers throughout the UK, thus enhancing the confidence and skills sonographers need to detect heart defects during routine pregnancy scans.
- They ensure the voice of parents and the needs of babies are heard by those setting standards in CHD services.
- They inform and empower parents-to-be about their 20-week scan and raise awareness of the five potential signs of undiagnosed CHD.
- They support families by complementing medical material with practical information and peer-to-peer advice; giving parents the information they need to navigate this challenging time.
If you want to know even more about them, you can by checking out their website > www.tinytickers.org
We are already dreaming in to different ways we can raise plenty of money for such a fantastic cause, so watch this space!
