Two brothers have raised £1,230 for childrens charity

Two brothers have raised £1,230 to say thank you to The Sick Children’s Trust for supporting their family when two year-old Ethan was seriously ill in hospital, miles away from their home in Darlington.

Ethan, two, and Joshua, four, organised an obstacle course at Lowson Street preschool to raise money for The Sick Children’s Trust. Ethan’s brother Joshua, along with Mum Emma and Dad Steven, were supported with free ‘Home from Home’ accommodation at The Sick Children’s Trust’s Scott House when Ethan was being treated at Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

In April 2017, doctors discovered that Ethan had an enlarged heart. A few weeks later he was transferred from Darlington’s Memorial Hospital to Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital where they were told he had a narrowing of the main artery in his heart and would require major surgery. During this time, Ethan’s family were supported at Scott House for four nights where they were just a few minutes’ walk from his hospital bedside. Mum Emma says:

“It was really lovely because Ethan got to stay with us at Scott House the night before his surgery and this really helped to keep things as normal as possible for him – he had no idea he was going to theatre

“The staff were so empathetic and it was great to have someone to talk to. We met lots of other families and most of them were dealing with much more complex conditions than we were and this helped us to put our situation into perspective. As worried as we were, his operation would take 20 minutes for the actual procedure to be completed. In most cases that is it and no further operations are necessary if this is successful.

“It was such a relief to know we didn’t have to make the almost 40 mile journey to and from the hospital every day. This wouldn’t have been an option had we needed to get there quickly and having a room at Scott House meant we were just two minutes from Ethan’s bedside.