Why I donate to SSNAP
With first-hand experience of the good work SSNAP does for the parents of sick newborns at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, running the Oxford half marathon in support of them was a no-brainer for Simon Winchester.
Helping Rhinos
This is a feature from Issue 22 of Charitable Traveller. Click to read more from this issue.
I’d made up my mind that I was going to run the Oxford half marathon to raise funds for SSNAP before we’d even left the neonatal unit. SSNAP stands for Supporting Sick Newborns and their Parents, and operates out of the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. where our daughter, Romilly, was born prematurely last July, weighing just 1.32kg.
As an IVF baby, she’d been monitored extensively throughout the pregnancy, and we’d had a lot of scans and genetic tests looking for any issues with her development. The doctors were worried that her growth rate was slow and, at 33 weeks, they said the blood flow through the placenta was so low that she’d be safer out than in. We were promptly booked in for a Caesarean section the following week.
After this consultation, we were introduced to a volunteer from SSNAP and got first-hand experience of the great work this charity does, namely providing front-line support to parents and babies in the neonatal unit. As well as funding necessary kit, such as breast pumps, and creating comfortable family rooms with microwaves (so parents can take some respite from the very medicalised ward), they also provide tours of the ward and surrounding corridors so parents don’t feel quite so disoriented after the birth.
Romilly was born by caesarean section at 34 weeks and one day.
My wife Claudine was taken off to recover, while I was plunked down in the open ward to start caring for our child in front of eight other families.
It may seem like a small thing, but the fact that SSNAP had already shown me how to register for facial recognition so I could get past security on the ward’s door, where I could wash my hands, and where the loos were really helped take the edge off what it is to have your newborn baby in one of those units.
We were lucky, Romilly was home six weeks after she was born, but some of the families at the John Radcliffe were there for six or seven months. Instead of working from home, these parents were working from laptops in the hospital while supporting their newborn baby, and volunteers from SSNAP would often be the only non-medical human contact these families were having.
I’ve run lots of long distance events so signing up to run the Oxford half marathon for SSNAP while we were in the neonatal unit gave me something in the future to focus on, and I was so happy when it became a reality three months later – with my wife and baby daughter cheering me on and waiting for me on the finish line. My training for the half wasn’t the most diligent, but thankfully the course in Oxford is nice and flat, and SSNAP has one of the largest teams of runners on the course. I think there were about 250 of us running for SSNAP on the day, so the support from both the other runners and the crowds lining the the route was fantastic.
While having a premature baby is never going to be the easiest, SSNAP really helped make our time with Romilly at the John Radcliffe hospital a positive experience. Romilly now weighs a stonking 5.5kg, and is doing really well, and SSNAP have become my number one charity to support because the work they do is so targeted. I’ll definitely be doing more to raise money for them in the future.
Here to support
SSNAP – Supporting Sick Newborns and their Parents – provides emotional, medical, financial, and informational support at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
www.ssnap.org.uk
This is a feature from Issue 22 of Charitable Traveller. Click to read more from this issue.
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