“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
Lily Doyle
Lily's story, told by dad, Richard "On the 10th May 1990 our second child, Lily Doyle, was born. She was quite frail and was sick after most feeds, but in our limited experience as parents (one other child at 18 months old) this was quite normal." This continued for...
Toy MRI for MRI Research
With your help we have funded some special toy MRI equipment to help young patients. MRI research nurse Ruth Foley tells this very special “Because of You” story! Meet James! James is 6 years old and has Tetralogy of Fallot. Read his backstory here. James came to...
James Noonan
From: Leeds Mum: Claire CHD: Tetralogy of Fallot James was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot at our 20 week scan. At 4 days old James was ready to have his tiny heart stented and he did not have a name. So before he went for his procedure we named him James. Dr...