Crawford House was there for my family on two occasions

The Sick Children’s Trust’s Crawford House was there for my family on two occasions when we needed somewhere to stay while my son, Ashton, had treatment in the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle.

At ten months old I became concerned that Ashton wasn’t hitting the milestones he should be. He had stopped trying to stand up on his own, showed no signs of walking and generally seemed to be behind other children in his development. Our health visitor also noticed and he was sent to our local hospital to have a CT scan. I was really worried as this indicated that something more serious was wrong with Ashton and I became really apprehensive about the results.

The scan showed that Ashton had Hydrocephalus, a condition where fluid is retained in the brain, increasing the pressure on the skull which explained his developmental delay. We were told that Ashton would need to visit the RVI for an MRI scan, over three hours away from our home in Workington. The scan showed that Ashton had a cyst and he was immediately taken into surgery. I was distraught, Ashton’s condition was far more serious than I anticipated and suddenly my little boy was in theatre undergoing major brain surgery.

My first thought was where would we all stay as going home wasn’t an option; we would be too far away from Ashton. Fortunately staff on Ashton’s ward soon told us about The Sick Children’s Trust’s Crawford House, a ‘Home from Home’ on the hospital site where families of sick children could stay while they were in hospital. My partner Phil, mum Diane and I were taken across to the house and met by Gail, the House Manager who showed us round and welcomed us in.

We were completely overwhelmed. The house was amazing and had all the facilities we could need to make us feel at home. We had a triple bedroom which was great; it meant we could all get a good night’s sleep away from the busy hospital ward. The kitchen was fully equipped with everything so my mum was able to cook a homemade meal every night which helped to keep our strength up and we could do all our washing as there was a laundry in the house too. We spent most of our time on the ward but it was lovely to be able to pop back to the house for a cup of tea, to watch half an hour of TV or just sit in the quiet and de-stress for a while. Crawford House was especially important for me to have time to relax as I was 18 weeks pregnant and expecting my daughter, Sienna so needed to make sure I got the rest we both needed and had the facilities to make nutritious meals instead of the fast food at the hospital.

Ashton stayed in hospital for eight days recovering from his operation before we were able to take him home. We were so relieved and knew that he would have follow up appointments but thought we could put the experience behind us and move on. However three months later Ashton still hadn’t healed from the surgery and he hadn’t recovered as well as his doctors thought he would. He was admitted back into the RVI for two more bouts of surgery and we were again welcomed back in to Crawford House.

Following our previous stay the house was so familiar to us; it really felt like a second home. The house staff were friendly and completely understood our situation and what we were going through. We stayed for a further three nights before we could finally take Ashton home for good. I am so pleased to say that he is now doing brilliantly; he is currently having physiotherapy and can walk with a frame. We are so grateful to The Sick Children’s Trust for all of the support they gave us when we needed it most and will always value the work that they do.

Charlotte Sellers, Ashton’s mum