A generous couple from Harlow have gone above and beyond to fundraise for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust.
The NICU team, who provide intensive, high dependency and specialist care for sick newborn babies, cared for Sam and Lizzie Tanner’s two-year-old twins, Olivia and Sophia.
In thanks for their care, Sam and Lizzie, 32 and 31, organised a golfing event which gave people the chance to play at the acclaimed West Essex Golf Club, raising over £8,000 for The Princess Alexandra Hospital Charity.
Activities during the fundraiser included a full round of golf, a raffle to win exciting prizes, a ‘sign the tenner’ game, and a ‘beat the pro’ game where people could compete against a professional golfer. All prizes were kindly donated by friends, family, and local businesses.
Sam said: “We decided to organise a fundraiser for the NICU because of the incredible care that we received both during Lizzie’s pregnancy with our twins, and when they were born prematurely.
“We were diagnosed with twin to twin transfusion, which is a rare condition that occurs during a twin pregnancy when blood moves from one to the other while in the womb, when Lizzie was 15 weeks pregnant. We were treated at other hospitals and this was thankfully successful, and we were then again under the care of the NICU staff at PAHT, who we saw every two days.
“Our twins were born at 32 weeks, two weeks after Lizzie’s waters broke. Olivia weighed just 3lb 5oz, and Sophia was just 2lb 6oz.
“The care we received was incredible at such a challenging time, and the only way we felt we could really show our appreciation was by raising money for the department.”
Gary Taylor, head of charity, The Princess Alexandra Hospital Charity, said: “A big thank you to both Sam, Lizzie, Olivia, Sophia, and everyone involved with this generous fundraiser for our NICU.
“This is an incredible amount of money to receive, which will help to make a real difference for our patients and their families. The money raised will help our NICU purchase a new Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) scanning machine, which will help to screen premature and very low birthweight infants for ROP to prevent retinal detachment and blindness.