“CHSF has helped us so much. Thank you for everything you have done for us. It’s really helped having the extra support at a such hard time.“
Written by heart mum, Chelsea Machon
My partner Matthew and I found out that Blake had something wrong with his heart when he suddenly was really poorly on 30th September 2022.
We took him to Chesterfield Hospital to be seen and Matthew and I were told he had sepsis as well as two big infections. We were told he needed to be put on a ventilator and taken to Manchester to be in intensive care.
Once we were in Manchester, we found out Blake had a heart condition called mitral valve regurgitation. It was severe and need to be operated on.
After a week in Manchester paediatric intensive care unit, we were transferred to Leeds Children’s Hospital where Blake was seen by the cardiac surgical team straight away. They came up with a plan to operate as soon as possible which was very scary for me and Matthew.
Blake had his first open heart surgery on 13th October, and his second on 25th October to have a mechanical valve put in.
Children’s Heart Surgery Fund has helped me and Matthew so much.
They brought us toiletries when we arrived at Leeds and had nothing with us.
When we were low on funds they helped us with travel costs. This meant that our family could come up to Leeds support us when we needed it most.
Thank you for everything you have done for us. It’s really helped having this extra support at a such hard time.
It is only with your continued support that we can keep being there for more families like Chelsea, Matthew and Blake.
We can only do the work we do, because of you.
We appreciate the cost of living crisis is affecting us all, including families of the 1 in 100 babies who are born with congenital heart disease every day.
CHSF are incredibly grateful to everyone who continues to donate. If you are able to set up a regular payment to CHSF during these challenging times, we promise every penny will go towards supporting hearts for life.
MORE REAL STORIES
Real Stories: Tom Sowerby
My name’s Tom. I had heart surgery at Leeds twice as a child, and on my 27th birthday I’ll be running a marathon to raise money for Children's Heart Surgery Fund. I'm looking to do it in a fast time and show the next generation of heart surgery children that the sky's...
Heart dad Liam’s 100 mile challenge
💗🏃♂️ Meet super heart dad LIAM whose daughter LACEY is due to have open heart surgery today. Liam wanted to set himself the challenge of running 100 miles to raise funds for CHSF in the run up to his daughters operation and so far been blown away by the support from...
REAL STORIES: Sophia
Heart warrior princess Sophia is nearly three months old but hasn't yet left Leeds Children's Hospital. We spoke to Sophia's mummy Charlotte about her little heart warrior's journey so far...Sophia was born in May 2020 Our journey started on 10th May 2020 - the day...