Join CHSF’s Family Support Worker, Sarah Cherry, for a fun, interactive and FREE music and dance session with Shake, Rattle and Boogie!!

Here’s all the details you need:

• Child ages: 2-10 years old
• This free virtual session will take place on Friday 5th February from 3.15pm-4pm

Let’s get creative for this session – children should bring:

• shaker – empty plastic bottle with rice or pasta inside
• scarf – a pillowcase
• bean bag – a pair of rolled up socks
• xylophone – anything at all that makes a noise or use your ‘shaker’ prop
• music sticks – wooden spoons
• Pom Pom – cut-up carrier bag
• bells – anything that makes a sound, or use your shaker prop
• boogie blanket – any blanket or duvet
• bubbles – you don’t have to have these, but you can make your own from washing-up liquid and water then cut the bottom off a bottle and place a sock over it!! (or they can just pretend to pop mine on the screen!!)

To register, just fill in this simple form below and Sarah will send you the link to the ZOOM dance session in advance of the session…

WEAR RED DAY VIDEO CALL BACKGROUNDS

Whether it’s for a lockdown Zoom quiz or for a week of meetings at work, we have plenty of red backdrops to choose from!

Just click ‘DOWNLOAD’, right click on the image and select ‘Save image as’

DOWNLOAD

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DOWNLOAD

WEAR RED FOR SOPHIA

Heart warrior Sophia was born in May 2020 with complex heart problems and was christened in the neonatal unit at Leeds Children’s Hospital.

She had open heart surgery at just four days old, and spent the first months of her life being treated at the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit due to further complications.

Read Sophia’s story

The CHSF team are always on hand to help with your Wear Red Day fundraising

Drop us an email on info@chsf.org.uk or call 0113 831 4810

A huge round of applause goes to awesome Heart Mum, Jenny Thackeray who went the distance during lockdown to say thank you for the treatment her daughter HARRIET received at Leeds…

Jenny told us about Harriet’s heart journey so far and how that inspired her to fundraise for CHSF…

In Sep 2016, we welcomed the arrival of our identical twin girls, Harriet and Darcie. As with most multiple births, they arrived early, and we spent some time in the Special Care Baby Unit at Scarborough Hospital. During this time, a congenital heart defect was discovered in Harriet; a hole in the wall that separates the two lower chambers of the heart, a Ventricular Septal Defect.

Harriet’s heart defect continued to be monitored, in the hope it would close on its own, however, the reality gradually dawned that this was not going to be the case. Harriet would require open heart surgery to repair the hole, to enable her to live a life without increased risk of heart disease, stroke, or other complications.

Harriet’s surgery took place on 3rd Aug 2018, almost age two, under the care of Miss Van Doorn at Leeds Congenital Heart Unit.

The care received at Leeds is something we will be forever grateful for and a time we will never forget. Not only did Harriet receive the best care, we, as very anxious parents, were made to feel welcome and were housed nearby, so that we were never far away, giving us huge comfort at such a tense time.

Children’s Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF) is a charity that supports Leeds Congenital Heart Unit, providing funding and resources to help care for the patients at the unit and their families. During the pandemic ‘lockdown’ that began in March 2020 I took up running, and later decided to set myself a challenge to raise some money to give back to CHSF.

I signed up to ‘Jog On 2020’ and run a marathon over 10 days from 26th Dec. Cheered on by Harriet and Darcie, I completed the challenge on 3rd January!

I have been so overwhelmed with generosity and support, raising a total of £1742. Given the current circumstances and the time of year, I am especially thankful that people have chosen to sponsor me. I know this money will mean such a lot to Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, and I’m so glad we got to give them something back.

Jenny – you are simply fantastic! And an even bigger thank you to the friends and family who sponsored you! Everything CHSF does for heart families in our region is because of amazing fundraisers like you!

FEELING INSPIRED?

Think you could take on a challenge to fundraise for our heart unit? Head over to our new VIRTUAL EVENTS CALENDAR for 2021 and take your pick of fundraising activities throughout the year.

Got a different idea? Need a bit more help? Don’t know where to start?

The CHSF Team are always here to give you a helping hand. Just call 0113 831 4810 or drop Lisa an email on lisa.williams@chsf.org.uk 

Heart mum AMANDA and her son KAYDEN were officially our last fundraisers of 2020, and our first of 2021 – starting our new year with a BANG!

What a year 2020 had been! New Year’s Eve afternoon we sat as family and looked back at the year. When the clock struck midnight we wanted to be able to celebrate the end of the year on a positive note and I had read that afternoon about CHSF’s 1 in 100 challenge.

We didn’t have much time so me and Kayden got straight to setting up a fundraising page. We wanted to be able to raise £100 by midnight to give to Children’s Heart Surgery Fund. Lots of charities have struggled massively this year so we couldn’t see no better way to start the year than to be able to donate to this amazing charity and help make a difference.

Our challenge was to find 100 friends to donate £1 or 200 friends 50p by midnight!

We used the power of social media to share our page. We were totally overwhelmed by our friends and families support and we raised a fantastic amount. What a great start to 2021!

As a family we are forever grateful to Children’s Heart Surgery Fund. They have always been there for us over the last 12 years. They’ve helped us through our most difficult times, especially a few years ago when Kayden had open heart surgery. They provided us again with accommodation at the hospital. One less stress, meaning we could be close to our son when he needed us most. Kayden was also given a certificate, a medal and Katie Bear after his surgery. Kayden has had two operations and he is very proud of his Katie Bears and medals. They are very special as they can’t be purchased and only given to our heart warriors.

We’ll continue to support CHSF as they are always there for us. All the staff at Leeds Congenital Heart Unit and CHSF are amazing. We are forever thankful for all they do.

Fancy taking on your own #1in100Challenge ?

Head over to our 1 in 100 Challenge page to get lots of ideas and inspiration on how you could fundraise for our heart warriors this year!

The CHSF Team are on hand to help with anything you need for your fundraising!
You can get in touch with us at info@chsf.org.uk or call 0113 831 4810

During the first lockdown heart warrior Owen decided he would like to do a Stair Climb Challenge to raise funds for CHSF…

…and it wasn’t long before his classmates wanted to step up to the challenge and get fundraising!

Owen researched the how many steps it would take to climb world landmarks

Owen’s mum Stephanie told us a little bit about how his fundraising idea came about…

During lockdown Owen decided he would like to do a Stair Climb Challenge for charity! He thought he would be able to climb enough steps to make it to the top of the Blackpool tower (1036 stairs – or up and down our stairs 77 times!).

We (Mum and Dad) thought this was a little optimistic and that he would be lucky to make it up Big Ben (399 steps) without complaining or losing interest.

However, Owen was very keen and completed a lot of research comparing the heights of different buildings.

The challenge was shared with the rest of his Year 1 class at school and we gained lots of eager recruits. In total 18 children joined in (with the help of some older and younger siblings!

The enthusiasm, motivation, determination and the encouragement they had for one another was astounding. They even had a shout out on Stray FM and a few created colourful Heart T-shirts! The number of steps increased at a steady pace and the sponsorship kept rolling in.

Our chosen charity was Children’s Heart Surgery Fund as Owen has a “special heart” as he calls it, and when he was first born he had a stay on the heart ward at the Leeds Children’s Hospital. The charity helps heart families in so many ways – they provide family accommodation for parents whose children are having surgery, vital clinical equipment but also small things like a teddy and a medal for those children who have had open heart surgery.

“The enthusiasm, motivation, determination and the encouragement they had for one another was astounding.”

By the end of the challenge, the children had climbed an AMAZING 22,706 steps (or 1,621 times up and down our stairs!) and the sponsorship totalled over £1,525!

To put into context what they have managed to climb, they have climbed UP and DOWN all the following:

That’s Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower, Canary Wharf, Blackpool Tower, Forth Rail Bridge, Elizabeth Tower, Sydney Opera House and the Millennium Dome…phew!!

Never underestimate what little legs can achieve!

PICK YOUR PEAK
“Together on Wear Red Day we climbed a mountain for CHSF!”

A class or school can virtually climb a mountain together. Just divide the amount of stairs they each have to climb – all whilst wearing red of course!

MONT BLANC
30,420 STEPS

MOUNT KILIMANJARO
38,680 STEPS

MOUNT EVEREST
58,070 STEPS

Step up to the challenge and move mountains to raise funds for children like Owen on 5th February.

Sign your school up for Wear Red Day and receive your free pack full of fantastic fundraising ideas

Register here

Got another idea? Need some help?
Our fundraising team are always on hand to talk through ways you can support CHSF and offer advice. Just call 0113 831 4810 or email lisa.williams@chsf.org.uk

We made it, together! Thanks to YOUR amazing fundraising efforts we have reached the fundraising target for the MRI Baby Pod.

And we have a lot of organisations and individuals to thank…

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who supported our Baby MRI Incubator Christmas Appeal and the following Trusts and Foundations, individuals and organisations who have all given grants and donations to this revolutionary equipment:

• Barry Brown
• The Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust
• The Grace Trust
• Heart Research UK
• Ilkley Round Table
• The Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation
• The Morrisons Foundation
• The Purey Cust Trust
• Sovereign Health Care Community Programme
• Yorkshire Children’s Hospital Fund

And thank you from the bottom of our hearts for smashing the final £5,000 via our Just Giving campaign! We set this page up over Christmas, and

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Over half of this final target was raised by the amazing

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This state-of-the-art incubator will allow babies to be transported directly from the ward into the MRI department, where scans can be conducted free from complications and distress.

It will also give clinicians the opportunity to add extra equipment to also make it safe for sicker babies to have an MRI scan.

It might only be the second week of January but the awesome CHURWELL LIONS JFC have seriously got the ball rolling with fundraising in 2021!

By working as a team they have not only hit their fundraising goal, they’ve smashed it!

U10 Manager, Ian Longley tells us about the team’s fundraising idea and the special heart warrior who inspired him to get the team fundraising for CHSF…

The pandemic is causing everyone enormous disruption and we wanted to ensure we kept a sense of team spirit and bonding at Churwell Lions even though we couldn’t see each other.

After a successful physical challenge during the first national lockdown, I chose to keep my team motivated by setting them something new to focus on. For the second lockdown I decided to do a fitness challenge for my team – a Couch to 5K run.

We decided that it would be fantastic if we could raise some much needed money for a charity whilst keeping the players and their families fit, active, engaged and connected.

This challenge had a six week duration to build up people’s stamina to be able to carry out a 5k run. Each week I set the players and their families a set distance which, once completed they had to send in a photo saying they had ‘smashed’ the distance.

They were sent to me on our team WhatsApp group and I could then upload them onto our team JustGiving page, as well as giving weekly updates.

I received plenty of positive feedback from players and parents who were delighted to participate in the now charity event – all involved were fully committed.

With there being 20 players in my team I decided to ask each player’s family to donate £10 to the fund initially, setting a target amount of £200. As the weeks progressed, I had to keep upping the target amount due to people’s generous donations which helped us reach over £1,700 by the end of the challenge.

Louise and I have participated in other fundraising events but never organised one before, so we decided to set one up. The reason why Children’s Heart Surgery Fund was chosen by Louise and I was because our daughter, Isabella (born April 2006), had a congenital heart disease (Tetralogy of Fallot).

Over a 14 month period, we spent many an hour and several periods of extended stays at the LGI for check-ups, emergency visits and eventually for corrective heart surgery (June 2007).

Unfortunately, Isabella never regained consciousness after post-surgery complications and sadly passed away a week later at 14 months of age – breaking our hearts. Although this period of our life was the most difficult time anyone could ever encounter, we were always grateful to the staff and doctors we had met along the way – for their dedication, compassion, and care to all of us.

Having read the CHSF JustGiving page we soon realised the money we could raise would be put to good use and would help other families during difficult times of their lives.

I would suggest to any fundraiser who has never organised an event before that you do feel a great deal of satisfaction when achieving the milestones set. I would suggest that you:

• make the event challenging (not impossible)
• keep spirits up in group chats
• take loads of photos along the way
• update your fundraising page to keep the challenge in people’s mind and finally;
• keep spreading the word on social media

We are highly delighted that we have been able to do this charity event which helped to keep our players and families fit and focussed during the pandemic whilst supporting the CHSF.

A huge well done and thank you to all the players and their families at Churwell Lions JFC – you should all be so proud of what you have achieved! #BecauseofYou

1 in 100 babies are born with a heart defect and Eloise was inspired to fundraise for CHSF after her baby sister BEATRIX needed surgery at just 12 days old.

Eloise with little sisters Martha and Beatrix

When my Dad first told me that they were pregnant again, I was delighted! My baby sister Martha was two and full of life, humour, and love, and I was so excited for the new addition!

At one of the scans, it became apparent that the new baby had a heart condition. I was so worried, as were my Dad and his wife Claire, but the way they seemed to keep so calm about it was inspiring.

I’m so proud of how Claire has kept Beatrix safe from the moment she found out. And how my Dad managed to look after Martha while Claire was in hospital – she definitely loved being in charge of the house!

The way the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit have treated my family is amazing, they’ve had nothing but praise to say about everything and I just knew I had to do something to repay them.

Also knowing that Beatrix has to have two more operations and will be spending more time with Children’s Heart Surgery Fund during her life, I knew I had to show my thanks.

It was late in November when I looked online and saw that CHSF were asking people to raise £100 before the end of the year. I thought, well if I don’t make that much, I can just donate it myself! I thought I might just make it so I decided on going with the theme of 100 and completed 100 minutes of exercise every day in December.

Now exercise has never really been my thing, but I thought, I’m capable? Beatrix and many other babies from CHSF may never have this sort of capability, so that’s what inspired me and motivated me! It was a challenge, it was tough at times, but it really has shown me that if you want to do anything, if you put your mind to it, you really can do it!

And I’m still in total shock I’ve managed to raise over £1100! And I want to thank everyone at CHSF for everything they’ve done for my Baby B and my family, it’ll be forever appreciated! So thank you.

A huge thank you and well done to heart sister ELOISE and her enormously generous family and friends. It is only because of your amazing fundraising that we can keep being there for heart warriors like Beatrix! #BecauseofYou 

Fancy taking on your own #1in100Challenge ?

Head over to our 1 in 100 Challenge page to get lots of ideas and inspiration on how you could fundraise for our heart warriors this year!

The CHSF Team are on hand to help with anything you need for your fundraising!
You can get in touch with us at info@chsf.org.uk or call 0113 831 4810

Dear valued supporter,

We hope this update finds you healthy and well, as this incredibly difficult year draws to a close.

First of all can I say a huge THANK YOU for all your amazing fundraising this year, you continue to make an incredible difference to the lives of patients and their families.

2021 promises to be an even bigger challenge, as we strive to fund “wraparound” care for the whole family unit. Regular donations really help us plan for the future, knowing we have the income to fund our vision.

If you feel able, please consider making a regular gift to CHSF. You can do this by visiting our DONATE page.

Our plans for 2021 include:

• Expansion of self-care products for heart warriors like the home blood-testing INR kits Read more about Bella’s INR Kit, funded because of you!
• More heart-rate testing devices for patients who experience palpitations. Find out more about AliveKor devices here
• Grants for heart families who are struggling financially
• Direct support from our new family support worker, Sarah Cherry
• Even more support for adult patients living with congenital heart disease

As you may know, COVID-19 has hit the charity sector very hard indeed. We are not alone in this, businesses of every kind have needed to change their working practices to cope.

We have lost significant income from events fundraising, and are being forced to cut our costs, which includes a move to cheaper premises.

But as long as babies are born with heart disease in our region then patients and their families need a dedicated charity to support them on their heart journey.

We want you to know that our mission to support hearts for life will continue.

We will continue to deliver amazing life-saving projects with your help, and #becauseofyou.

Please consider a regular gift at http://chsf.org.uk/donate, I know you will do what you can to help. Thank you.

When Martin and Leanne Watts were told their son had a heart defect their world was turned upside down – only to be told a year later, his baby brother had CHD too.

Eight years on, both boys have had open heart surgery and the whole family want to say thank you to the people who saved Harley and Joey’s lives…

Mum, Leanne tells us all about what inspired her family to fundraise for CHSF…

In 2012 our lives were turned upside down when we were told our little boy, Harley, had SupraValvar Aortic Stenosis and pulmonary branches stenosis. The severity of the condition was incredibly high, and the future looked bleak. There were no options to us back then and we were told nothing could be done.

Then in 2013 Joey entered our lives. This was a time we should have been overjoyed, but yet again came the unbearable pain. Our little boy also had the same condition as his brother!

We were advised both boys were at risk of sudden death and probably wouldn’t live to be three years old.

As you can imagine, the pain we felt as a family was unbearable, but we never let that stop us. The boys were bought up with their other siblings doing what children of their age did – with limitations obviously.

Fast forward to 2018, we were told Joey needed Surgery in the very near future. The chance of his survival was 1 in 10 due to the huge risk of anaesthetic but without the interventionalists and surgeons trying, our little boy’s life was hanging by a thread.

Both Harley and Joey had open heart surgery at Leeds

Harley and Joey with their heart surgeon Mr Osama Jaber at the opening of the Hybrid Theatre Dec 2019

CHSF helped to fund the new Hybrid Theatre at Leeds Children’s Hospital

In May 2019 Joey underwent his surgery and it was a great success because of the new Hybrid Theatre at Leeds Children’s Hospital, everything being under one roof and of course all the amazing staff in PICU and on Ward L51. Our boy’s future looked brighter.

Without the amazing Hybrid Theatre, this surgery wouldn’t have been possible and was only because of the wonderful work that Children’s Heart Surgery Fund did to make the theatre a reality.

Eight months later, Harley was to have the same surgery, with the same chances of survival – and he too made a fantastic recovery.

The support we received from the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund was phenomenal. Not only did the theatre that they raised money for save our boys lives but they also made sure we had accommodation to stay in during our stays in hospital, taking away took away financial pressures. They provided both boys with a Katie Bear teddy, medal and certificate – and I believe this aided their recovery. We will forever be indebted to Children’s Heart Surgery Fund for the amazing work they do!

This was when me and Fiona Harper decided we would plan a Halloween Spooky Sponsored Walk to try and raise some money for a great cause so close to our hearts – and we asked our football community to get involved and help us in our plight.

Even Katie Bear got spooky for the Halloween walk!

Children in football team bubbles joined in with the spooky walk!

Martin Watts who runs Tickton Pumas (Harley & Joey’s dad) and Lee Jenkinson were keen to get involved, along with James Leebetter who runs Tickton Hurricanes (Fiona’s Partner). They asked their team members if they would participate and the response was fantastic!

We ran a prize for best fancy dress costume too which made the day a little more fun. Emily Blake who helps run the admin page for the Pumas was also extremely keen to help.

The Halloween walk was fantastic, and a great success and we raised a super amount of money for CHSF.

I’m so grateful to everyone who participated and sponsored us that day as we can now give a little back to help others – just like Children’s Heart Surgery Fund helped us ❤

And we are so grateful to the Watts Family, all who took part on the day and of course all who donated to the Halloween walk.

You all raised an amazing total of £2033 – an incredible amount of money to help the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit, our heart warriors and their families #BecauseofYou

There’s a Harley and a Joey under there somewhere!!