News

Nicola, Darcy and Ellis

Published 10th May 2022

With not long to go until the magical evening of our Midsummer Night’s Dream Ball, midsummernight.eventbrite.co.uk, we’d like to share a piece written by Nicola, who is one of our EBA committee members and our secretary, about her and her partner Darcy’s experiences when their son was born very prematurely.

‘Our son Ellis was born at 25 weeks + 2 days back in 2019. To this day, we don’t have a reason as to why he decided to come into the world so early. At the time we suddenly found ourselves being plunged into a dark hole of chaos and despair, and we felt our world shatter around us.
Without the incredible work of the nurses and doctors at the Trevor Mann Baby Unit, Ellis would not have survived and in all honesty, neither would we.

Ellis spent 96 days in hospital, experiencing a whirlwind of highs and lows, infection after infection, holes in his heart and bacterial meningitis. It felt like just when we saw a shimmer of light, a dark cloud would cast over leaving us feeling hopeless.

For the duration of his stay, we were given a room in the Ronald McDonald Brighton House and that became our safe place. It had everything we needed to help us function, including an en-suite bathroom, fully equipped kitchen to make hot meals and even freezer space to store expressed milk. On the days we would come back, feeling broken, we were always met with a hug and a cuppa, the kind of support we never expected yet couldn’t have gotten through without.

The staff at TMBU and RMHC are the most selfless, wonderful humans I’ve ever encountered and thanks to all of them we have an Elton John obsessed 3 year old who spreads joy everywhere he goes.

This ball is a beautiful way to pay tribute to the dedication and determination of all the staff as well as raising vital funds for both RMHC and the fantastic Early Birth Association who provide vital support to the babies, parents and staff on the units.’

Tickets are selling fast, if you are interested in finding out more information or buying tickets, you can visit our event page: midsummernight.eventbrite.co.uk
or email: abigail.sainty@uk.mcd.com