Since 2019 we have been helping to transform the neonatal unit at East Surrey Hospital for the nearly 500 babies per year who need special care at the very start of their lives.
We want to go further for local families, with a new, comfortable overnight room for parents to stay alongside their baby, and by providing a specialist neonatal transport incubator, which will help save more lives amongst the smallest babies.
Over 4,500 local families have babies each year at East Surrey Hospital, or under the care of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (SASH).
Approximately one in ten of these arrive prematurely or require intensive care. These babies and their families are cared for in the neonatal unit at East Surrey Hospital.
Babies as young as 27 weeks and their families are often in the unit for weeks, or sometimes months, until they are well enough to go home.
Olive, who is now eight, is one of these incredible babies. Olive lived in the hospital for much of the first 110 days of her life, with her mum Keata, and inspired this appeal.
Your support for Olive's Appeal will help the neonatal intensive care unit / special care baby unit here at East Surrey Hospital to transform care for these premature or very unwell babies, like Olive, and for their mums and dads.