Charity Tandem Skydive with Little Hearts Matter
Little Hearts Matter works with families where a single ventricle heart condition has been diagnosed.
This condition is the severest of all heart conditions; twenty years ago most of these children would have died within days of being born. Thankfully, today, there is life-saving surgery available for many of these children, however, they will not all survive the complex operations required. Those that do survive will never have a fully working heart so need to learn to live with the life limiting condition.
For those who are not familiar with Little Hearts Matter, they are the national organisation that supports these children and their families as they learn to face the challenges that their condition creates. They offer a wide range of services that supports the child (and their family) along their journey to independence. They also offer bereavement support to the families who sadly loose a child to the condition.
What do the families say:-
“We will never forget the first event we attended; Matthew was only 3 weeks old was still critically ill in intensive care at the time. Attending the event allowed us the chance for the first time to see there might be a future for him, as we talked to other parents who understood what we were going through.”
“Little Hearts Matter has become a lifeline to me and my 4 year old son Samuel. We would be lost without them.”
“LHM literally saved us and my little boy. I had the wrong information from my foetal cardiac specialist on the condition and success rates. I'm so grateful to LHM.”
“I received my diagnosis whilst pregnant and came to one of your Family Days when I was seven months pregnant. I had to hold back my tears, tears of joy and hope, as I saw ten year old children with the same condition as my unborn baby playing happily together., I started to see a future from that day on, and whilst there are many precarious obstacles along the way, knowing Little Hearts Matter is here to support us, brings huge relief to us.”
The condition isn’t correctable and sadly is life limiting, we help families lead as normal a life is as possible, helping children along their journey to independence.
For any child the transition to adulthood is extremely stressful, but for these children and their parents it is almost unimaginable at how, scared, confused and lonely the children and their parents are. They do not have people round the corner experiencing the same life threatening journey and for many our annual Families and Friends weekend is the only occasion they get to meet up with similar children and parents to share their anxieties and generally just feel less alone and isolated. A few tears but many hours of laughter are shared between the families
Please consider supporting Little Hearts Matter
Tel: 0121 455 8982