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Coronation Street’s Kym Marsh helps us deliver festive cheer to parents and premature babies as part of our Light Up Christmas appeal
You can help Bliss's ongoing work by donating here
WE really did Light Up Christmas. This month we have been highlighting the work of Bliss, the charity dedicated to babies born sick and premature.
Our appeal has revealed inspirational stories about the bravest little fighters, as well as showing how new parents have coped with some of life’s toughest challenges. And this week, The Sun has also been delivering festive cheer.
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Show your support for Bliss by donating here
Coronation Street star Kym Marsh, our columnist Lorraine Kelly and even Santa himself joined the Bliss team to hand out hampers and goodie bags to some of the 8,000 families spending their baby’s first Christmas in hospital. Inside the packages were gifts such as cuddly toys, hats and books.
They also contained treats for parents, including £10 Mothercare vouchers, £20 Just Eat gift cards, vitamins, sweets, biscuits and Bliss baby milestone cards.
Thanks to donations from kind readers, Bliss can continue funding research into neonatal care and helping families with babies in those units. There is STILL time to give. See the details on the left to find out how.
Here we meet just some of the newborns who your money is helping to support.
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Newborn baby appeal: please give what you can
TO DONATE ONLINE: GO TO mcb777.site/light-up-christmas
CALL: 020 7378 5740
DONATE BY TEXT:Sending BLISS followed by the amount (e.g. BLISS £10) to 70085. You can choose to donate £1, £3, £5, £10, £15 or £20. You will be charged the standard network rate when texting your keyword.
OR BUY A BEAR: YOU can make a difference to the life of a baby this Christmas by buying an adorable My First Bliss Bear. The cute white bear called Scuby, named after Special Care Baby Units (SCBU), holds a smaller brown bear called Inky, named after incubators. These gifts cost £8.50 each and the money goes directly to Bliss. You can buy a bear .
St Mary's Hospital
Manchester
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IT was an emotional visit for Coronation Street star Kym Marsh, who returned to the unit where her own daughter was given life-saving treatment. The former pop star gave birth to Polly seven weeks early, in March 2011, and the odds of her surviving were slim.
Just two years earlier, she and ex-husband Jamie Lomas had lost premature baby Archie.
Kym, who describes seven-year-old Polly as her “little miracle”, was delighted to meet parents and their brave kids at the hospital where her daughter spent ten days in intensive care.
She said: “The work the doctors and nurses do is amazing and I will be forever grateful to them. At this time of year, it’s particularly hard to be in hospital so I was delighted to be able to help spread a little festive cheer.”
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Show your support for Bliss by donating here
Parents like Danielle Kane, 37, were thrilled with the goodies. Danielle, from Burnage, Manchester, gave birth to little Amelia on November 4, 11 weeks before her due date.
She said: “It was nice to speak to Kym about her experiences. It’s lovely to think there are nice people in the world who want to wish us well, like Sun readers and the companies who have donated all these gifts.”
New dad Josh Brooks-Adams, 31, from Stockport, whose baby Emma Faith was born on December 11 at 32 weeks, was chuffed with his goodies.
He said: “There are cuddly toys in the hamper and I haven’t managed to get out and buy her a toy yet, so that’s lovely. The little hat is perfect too. This is brilliant, so thank you.”
Newborn baby appeal: please give what you can
TO DONATE ONLINE: GO TO mcb777.site/light-up-christmasCALL: 020 7378 5740
DONATE BY TEXT:Sending BLISS followed by the amount (e.g. BLISS £10) to 70085. You can choose to donate £1, £3, £5, £10, £15 or £20. You will be charged the standard network rate when texting your keyword.
OR BUY A BEAR: YOU can make a difference to the life of a baby this Christmas by buying an adorable My First Bliss Bear. The cute white bear called Scuby, named after Special Care Baby Units (SCBU), holds a smaller brown bear called Inky, named after incubators. These gifts cost £8.50 each and the money goes directly to Bliss. You can buy a bear .
Barnet Hospital
London
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OUR visit made new mum Francesca Mindell’s day. The 26-year-old teacher’s tiny daughter Grace Mindell was born was born nine weeks early on December 7.
Francesca, from Totteridge, North London, said: “You become a bit robotic in here, concentrating on what you need to do for your baby. Meeting Lorraine and having these gifts is a lovely pick-me-up.”
Dad Rob, 28, added: “It’s fantastic that The Sun has been supporting Bliss. Parents on these units would have struggled without its support.”
Simone Austin, 28, from Barnet told how winter hospital rules brought in to stop the spread of germs have prevented her five-year-old Joey visiting baby sister Elena any more. Elena was born on October 18 at 24 weeks.
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Show your support for Bliss by donating here
She said: “The doctors and nurses saved Elena’s life. Meeting Lorraine Kelly was amazing and I’ll show Elena the pictures when she’s older. The support from Bliss has been amazing too.”
Mum-of-two Georgiana Lupascu’s son Vlad was born at 34 weeks, weighing 4lb 9oz. Docs hope he will be going home soon.
Georgiana, 33 – originally from Romania and now living in Barnet – said: “The visit and the hamper are lovely ways to spend our final days here." Lorraine said: “Thank you to all our Sun readers for your generosity. It is so appreciated.”
Ward manager Miranda Ryan said: “It’s really nice of Lorraine to bring all the gifts and it’s brilliant that readers have been donating money to Bliss.”
Heartlands Hospital
Birmingam
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Baby Paige Case’s mum was expecting to be heavily pregnant this Christmas - not caring for her tiny daughter in hospital.
Mum-of-five Tiffany, 29, who gave birth to Paige on December 3, nine weeks early, said: “Our other children were all premature but not this early. We’re hoping to be home for Christmas but until she’s feeding better, we’ll be here.
“It’s been lovely getting a hamper full of goodies, a really lovely Christmas surprise.
Little Isabella Fox was a full-term baby, delivered by emergency C-section on December 16, and weighing 8lb 5oz, but she is being treated for Group B strep, an infection which can be fatal in babies.
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Mum Charlotte, 26, a hairdresser from Solihull, said: “It’s a bit of a blur and we’re still in a bit of shock but everyone on the ward has been amazing, we’d be in a very different place without them.”
Consultant neonatologist Dr Richard Mupanemunda paid tribute to the vital work Bliss does for the unit.
He said: “Bliss is an amazing charity and we love working with them. In addition to funding research they also support the families who often have to stay for a while and juggle other children and jobs. They’re really invaluable.”
Jade Bennett, 28, from Sutton Coldfield, gave birth to her second child Teddy on November 1, at just 27 weeks. She had a low lying placenta and after being given steroid injections to mature Teddy’s lungs, he was born by C section.
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Jade said: “They couldn’t reassure us that everything would be OK. “They said they’d try and do everything but he was so tiny and vulnerable and fragile when he was born.”
And there was good news for Jade and husband Jake. On the day of our visit, they were preparing to go home with Teddy, who was born on November 1 weighing 2lbs 6oz. The pair also have a seven-year-old, Reagan.
Jake, 25, a transport controller, said: “We can’t wait to get home and have a family Christmas together. The visit today has been amazing, something we’ll all remember forever.”
Thank you so much
THANKS to the following companies for their donations: Just Eat, Harper Collins, Mothercare, JoJo Maman Bebe, My1stYears, Vitabiotics, Macmillan publishers, Emile et Rose, Walker books, Delicious Ideas and Pampers.
How to help
DONATE ONLINE: Go to.
DONATE BY TEXT: Sending BLISS followed by the amount (e.g. BLISS £10) to 70085. You can choose to donate £1, £3, £5, £10, £15 or £20. You will be charged the standard network rate when texting your keyword.
DONATE BY PHONE: Call 020 7378 5740.
DONATE BY POST: Please make cheques payable to “Bliss – National Charity for the Newborn” to Freepost RTZJ-GZYE-RCUA, The Sun Appeal, Bliss, Fourth Floor, Maya House, 134-138 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB.
The Sun is partnering with Bliss, the leading UK charity dedicated to poorly newborn babies, to sprinkle some Christmas cheer
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