This month we’re celebrating awesome heart warrior LILY who took on our Mountain in March challenge.
Lily stepped up to the challenge by climbing the height of Whernside on her stairs at home and has now raised over £2K for Children’s Heart Surgery Fund!
Lily’s mum Nicola told us a bit more about Lily’s story and why she wanted to fundraise for CHSF…
Lily was born on 21st March 2014 with a serious congenital heart defect known as tricuspid atresia and has undergone three major open-heart surgeries.
Her condition was detected pre-birth at my twenty-week scan. It was arranged for her to be born at Leeds General Infirmary so that she could be looked after by the Congenital Heart Unit and could undergo surgery soon after birth.
Lily underwent her first operation (the first stage of the Norwood procedure) at just seven days old. She then underwent the second stage of the procedure in October 2014 at seven months old.
Lily then had her third and final operation, the Fontan procedure, in January 2020 at the age of five. All three surgeries were carried out at Leeds General Infirmary by paediatric heart surgeon, Carin Van Doorn.
Throughout Lily’s hospital stays myself and my family stayed in accommodation within LGI which is funded by the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund to allow parents to stay close to their children during their operations.
It is of course vitally important that families are able to stay with their children during such difficult and challenging times.
Lily has also had the opportunity to attend CHSF events such as the annual Christmas party which allows the children to meet and befriend others with similar conditions.
I saw a post on Facebook that there was an opportunity to raise money for the CHSF by doing a virtual mountain climb and discussed this with Lily who was eager to do this.
Read more about Mountain in March here
She has completed a virtual mountain climb of Whernside which is the highest peak in Yorkshire by climbing up the stairs 284 times.
The only advice I can really give is to use social media to get the word out and ask your family and friends to also spread the word.
Lily’s fundraising was helped hugely also by family members getting their workplaces involved and asking their colleagues to donate.
We are incredibly grateful to Children’s Heart Surgery Fund for the help and support we have personally received and the fantastic service they provide for children and families in this region.
Lily’s health has improved drastically since undergoing the Fontan procedure last year and now that she is so much better she wanted to raise money for this important and valuable organisation.
Lily has now raised an outstanding £2300 for CHSF on her JustGiving page! Thank you so much to all Lily’s family and friends and of course to Lily herself for taking on this challenge!
Feeling inspired?
Could you step up to the challenge and start fundraising for CHSF? We’ve got loads of events to choose from at chsf.org.uk/events
Got your own idea? Want to try something different? We’re always on hand to discuss your fundraising at info@chsf.org.uk or call 0113 831 4810
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