I'm raising funds for Sydney Children's Hospitals Foundation!

This May, Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month, I am skipping 650 jumps each day to raise much needed funds for The Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

When Millie was 14 weeks old, we made the trek up the highway to Westmead to seek dedicated care for all aspects of her cystic fibrosis (CF) when we could not get the support, information, resources and opportunities locally in Canberra.

What we found when we arrived was an extension of our family. A multidisciplinary team that has become embedded in our lives and has shared in the ups and downs of the last 11 years, and not just those related to CF.

This amazing team specialises in all things CF. Millie’s team consists of a respiratory paediatrician, a physiotherapist, a dietician, a gastroenterologist, a social worker, a team of nurses and respiratory specialists, a pharmacist, a psychiatrist, but two of the most important in our world are Millie’s Clinical Nurse Consultant, Sharon (a living angel!), and the team psychologist, Stella!

What may surprise you is that this amazing team must rely on fundraising to continue to offer the essential resources and services to the children and young people that they support living with CF.  This year the team needs to raise $250,000 to ensure they can continue to have a psychologist on the team.

For Millie, Stella has provided valuable support that I can’t even quantify.  She has helped her understand her diagnosis and the burden she carries with her treatments, and the knowledge of living with a life limiting condition.  She has helped Mil put in place strategies for her friends if she isn’t feeling well or she is dealing with bullies about taking medications or dealing with the side effects of her CF.  For me, Stella has helped me become a better mother in supporting Mil with her CF needs, her emotional needs in managing her CF, and supporting her behaviour and resilience as she faces the daily challenges of living with CF.

Millie’s team support and encourage her EVERY SINGLE DAY to ensure she stays well and that our family stays well and happy as we live with CF.  So now it is our turn to support them!  This May I am hoping to raise $5,000 to ensure Stella, our CF psychologist remains a part of our CF family at Westmead.  To do this, I will be skipping (one of Millie’s great loves!) 650 jumps each day for the month of May.

Any donation, big or small, will make a real difference! And all donations are tax deductible. 

Fingers crossed for my aging knees and bladder … Thank you for reading!!