Children’s Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF) has been awarded a grant of £20,000 from London North Eastern Railway (LNER) to help children born with congenital heart disease, and their families.

The ’Healthy Hearts and Minds’ project will provide children who have coronary heart disease with blood testing kits and mobile kits for monitoring heart rhythms, plus welcome packs for their parents.

The INR kits reduce stress, and allow a patient to test their blood levels themselves at home without missing school for hospital appointments.

The mobile ECG kits also allow patients to record their heart rate wherever they are, and send the data straight to their cardiologist.

Both pieces of equipment are known to positively benefit the mental health of patients and parents as they mean fewer trips to hospital and earlier support for any worrying symptoms.

The project will also fund welcome packs for parents on their arrival at the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit providing essential everyday items.

Worried mothers and fathers often arrive at Leeds with next to nothing, as their child’s diagnosis can require urgent treatment.

The CHSF welcome packs contain items including a toothbrush, toothpaste, a water bottle, a lunch voucher and the contact details for CHSF’s Family Support Worker, who provides direct support for families of young inpatients.

CHSF’s Fundraising Manager Ellie Brown said:

As a charity, CHSF are committed to supporting the heart, mind, family and future of all congenital heart disease patients in the region being treated at Leeds.

 

We are hugely grateful to LNER’s fantastic grant, as we think this project covers all of these bases.

 

We appreciate the first few days in hospital can be extremely traumatic for parents, and welcome packs give them a chance to refresh and take stock.

 

Once patients are discharged following treatment, it can be both time consuming and stressful to visit hospital for routine monitoring appointments, especially in the wake of the pandemic.

 

Both kits allow the patient to send in medical results from home, and we applaud LNER for helping to provide this holistic care for patients and their families.

David Horne, Managing Director at LNER added:

We have supported many great charities and groups in recent years through our Customer and Community Investment Fund as part of LNER’s commitment to being a responsible business.

 

Our communities along the East Coast route are important to us and we are delighted to support Children`s Heart Surgery Fund and the Healthy Hearts & Minds Project in this new round of funding, helping them to make a difference to people’s lives.

A huge thanks from everyone at CHSF to LNER for making this happen! We can only support hearts for life #BecauseofYou.

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