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Dear ECHO community, You don't need us to tell you that the past few months have been a challenge for us all, as we all have been adjusting to life in lockdown and deal with changes to everyday life. At ECHO it has challenged us to consider how we can best support you, our community, while our small team works remotely, our office remains closed, events are cancelled or postponed and face to face volunteer services are cancelled. We have reached out to you for help, and we want to thank you all for your support. Whether you have created your own online ECHO fundraiser, made a one off donation or set up a direct debit, you make it possible for us to keep being there for families who need help. As always, you can find the latest updates and news from us on our social media @echoukcharity on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We're also available by email at hello@echo-uk.org so if there's something you need support with, please get in touch. Here's a roundup of some of the updates we think you'll be interested in: |
Thank you team Cardiology! |
ECHO families have joined together to thank the Evelina London Cardiology team by sharing photos of their heart heroes for a large banner display in front of the ECHO office, opposite the hospital. We know how hard all staff are working right now and we hope this will be a cheerful reminder about how much the ECHO community values their support and care. If you're near the hospital any time soon come and take a look! A big thank you also to Emma Adjei, a heart mum within our community, whose fab idea this was - it really does look brilliant! |
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Evelina London Children's Hospital unveils ambitious development plans |
Exciting plans have been announced to provide life-changing care for more children and young people at Evelina London. The hospital have begun the next phase of development plans to help meet the growing demand for their services.Over the past 10 years, demand for the hospital's expert services and family-friendly care has grown rapidly, doubling inpatient activity and more than doubling outpatient activity. A series of new developments are now planned to meet existing and future demand, improving facilities for patients, their families and staff. The development plans include:
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The latest advice on shielding |
Starting on Monday 6 July, millions of people shielding from coronavirus (COVID-19) were able to gather in groups of up to 6 people outdoors and form a ‘support bubble’ with another household. The government's announcement includes that this support package will remain in place until the end of July when people will no longer be advised to shield. From Saturday 1 August, the guidance will be relaxed so clinically extremely vulnerable people will no longer be advised to shield, but support will remain available from NHS volunteers and local councils. People will retain their priority for supermarket delivery slots, and still be able to access help with shopping, medication, phone calls and transport to medical appointments. While this group of clinically extremely vulnerable people should continue to follow strict social distancing measures, they will be able to participate in more activities such as visiting shops and places of worship. Check out our dedicated Coronavirus Information page for more information, and stay tuned on our social media for the latest updates. |
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We have launched new Cardiac Antenatal resources |
We recently launched a new online collection of resources for parents whose unborn child has been diagnosed with congenital heart disease, designed in particular for mothers giving birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resources include:
If there is more info you'd like to see - please tell us and we will be adding to this resource in the coming months. In addition to this, we have worked closely with the midwives at St Thomas' Hospital to launch our ECHO parent volunteer service online as part of the online ECHO Cardiac Antenatal Class. Expectant parents in the class will hear from a ECHO parent volunteer about their experience and have an opportunity to ask questions, which we know from feedback is hugely helpful for many parents at this time. |
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New member story: Heart Dad Juan |
We have added a new member story to our website, shared by heart dad and ECHO member Juan. His son Kael, was diagnosed with Transposition of The Great Arteries (TGA), Coarctation of The Aorta (CoA), and Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) antenatally. Kael’s first open-heart surgery (OHS) was on the 19th of April 2017, when he was only five days old. "The surgery had been a success, but it had been a brutal 1000 or so stitches. There, we were starting to see how complex the condition was and how strong and brave Kael had been to resist all of it." Kael is soon to be three years old and is now a very happy and active toddler; he is looking forward to getting into the nursery at the school his older siblings attend. |
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Join 100 heart families in the #1in100 project |
ECHO member Caroline is looking for 5 more families to take part in an exciting new fundraising project she is organising to raise funds and awareness for Evelina heart families. Caroline explains: What is #1in100? I’m inviting families to share a photo of their Heart Warrior. Families who have a Heart Angel are welcome to be part of this too.100 members' photos will be put together with beautiful music, and we currently need 5 more families to reach our goal! The campaign is about Evelina heart families saying thank you, raising funds and awareness around congenital heart disease, while celebrating our heart warriers and remembering those who are sadly no longer with us. How do I get involved? If you want to be one of the 100 families, head to the dedicated #1in100 Facebook group, and when you join Caroline will get in touch. The deadline is Thursday 24th July to join the group. How does fundraising come in? I’m asking each family who want to be part of the video to commit to sharing the video (which I will upload to YouTube) on social media to spread the word and raise a minimum of £10, but with a goal of £50-£100. If each of the 100 families could raise £50, we would raise £5,000! All funds will go directly to ECHO and to the Children’s Heart Fund at Evelina London. |
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At ECHO, we rely on the genorosity of people like you in order to continue our sevices, supporting children born with heart conditions and their families at each stage of their heart journey. One of the easiest and best ways you can help is by choosing to give monthly by direct debit - this could be as little as £3 a month. Your ongoing donation means we can be sure that we can continue to be there for families when they need us most. Your donation could help us provide emotional support to a newly diagnosed heart parent, give an ECHO welcome pack to families arriving on the ward, or enable us to provide toys and games for children staying in hospital. |
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Speak soon, Team ECHO Samantha, Emma, Siobhan, Sinéad and Kate |
hello@echo-uk.org | www.echo-uk.org Canterbury House 1 Royal Street London SE1 7LL Tel: 0207 998 4710 |
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