This week, we hear from Aimee Foster, Fundraising and Communications Officer at Tiny Tickers. She tells us about the national charity’s aim to improve the chances of babies born with a serious heart condition.
Founded in 1999 by world-renowned fetal cardiologist, Dr Helena Gardiner, Tiny Tickers is a national charity which deals with some terrifying truths: ‘A baby is born with a serious heart condition every two hours, in the UK,’ she says. ‘Despite congenital heart disease (CHD) being one of the biggest killers of infants in the UK, only around half of congenital heart defects are picked up during prenatal scanning.
‘It is absolutely vital that we provide a safety net for the 1,000 babies each year that leave hospital with their heart defect undetected.
‘We want to increase early detection rates of cardiac conditions thus improving a baby’s chances of survival and long-term quality of life.’
Since the launch of the charity’s Regional Sonographer Training Programme in 2016, more than 1,000 sonographers have benefitted from it, and come away with increased confidence, knowledge and skills to better spot heart defects during pregnancy screening.
‘We have also placed 86 pulse oximetry machines in hospitals around the UK, meaning that more babies can have the test that could help save their life,’ Aimee continues. ‘A pulse oximetry test measures oxygen levels in the blood — a low reading could indicate that the baby has a heart defect. At present, this test is not a mandatory part of NHS new-born screening.
‘By placing pulse oximetry machines in hospitals, we aim to help those babies whose heart defects were not detected during pregnancy, so they are not discharged from hospital with no-one knowing how critically ill they are.’
With such specialised equipment required to help the nation’s new-borns, it’s perhaps unsurprising that a small charity such as Tiny Tickers’ biggest challenge is generating the funds required to provide the first-rate training and equipment it aims to. ‘Income is critical in enabling us to deliver all of our core activity, as well as allowing us to offer parents and families the basic comfort of just knowing that we are there for them, during very difficult and overwhelming times.’ Aimee confirms.
Tiny Tickers has recently signed up to work with Donr and take donations via text. Funds raised from this will help the charity continue, and improve on, its vital work. If you can, please text ‘TINY’ to 70085 to donate £5*.
If you’d like to find out more about Tiny Tickers and its work, visit www.tinytickers.org or find the charity on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
*Texts will cost your donation amount plus one standard network rate message. Any amount can be donated from £1 to 20 e.g. to donate £4, text ‘TINY 4’ to 70085 or, to donate £12, text ‘TINY 12’ to 70085.
