Hello
My name is Freddy, I’m 11 years old and this Christmas I wanted to tell you about how much of a difference your donations will make to children like me.
I’m from Dorset, more than 235 miles away from Sheffield Children’s, but this Easter I was staying on a farm in Derbyshire with my family. I was enjoying being a trainee sheep farmer with my dad and brother Billy and having a great time. Then, on Good Friday at around 4pm, I was travelling in a trailer being towed by a quad bike. The next thing I remember was being under the trailer and my dad running over to lift it off my neck. My dad later explained that the quadbike and our trailer had disconnected, which caused the trailer to become out of control. It hit the verge and twisted, throwing my dad clear but trapping Billy and me underneath. I was very badly injured and my dad was worried I might die.
The first road ambulance took around 25 minutes to arrive and I remember the paramedic promising me he’d buy me a new Ninjago t-shirt after he had to cut mine off! As my brother was also hurt, my dad stayed with him and an air ambulance arrived to take me to Sheffield Children’s. Unfortunately, there’s no helipad at the hospital so we landed in the park opposite, had to wait for the traffic lights to change and then I had to be stretchered across the busy road. I was just lucky the delay for me wasn’t that long or who knows what might have happened. When I arrived at the hospital, I was given pain relief, oxygen to help me breathe and lots of scans. These showed that I had some really bad internal injuries and I went into Intensive Care.
The last day I was at Sheffield Children’s, I started to feel unwell. At 3am the next morning, I was rushed in an ambulance to Leeds, where I spent the next 42 days. My mum and I were really sad to leave in such a hurry and not be able to thank everyone in Sheffield that had done so much to help me. I’d like to say a massive and heartfelt thank you to everyone who looked after me. The staff at Sheffield Children’s really did feel like a family, and although it sounds strange, I often reminisce about my time there with my mum.
I’m telling you my story this Christmas because The Children’s Hospital Charity is fundraising to build a new helipad at the hospital. It’s already really close to happening - they’ve raised over two-thirds of their £6 million target - but they need your help to get them over the line.
If there is anything you can spare this Christmas, or if you could do some festive fundraising like taking part in Christmas Jumper Day, please visit The Children’s Hospital Charity website at www.tchc.org.uk/christmas to help make the helipad a reality.
Fred
