Back in 2023, Doncaster dad Carl Birks took on a frosty fundraising challenge for Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust’s ambulance service, Embrace, to say thank you for the care his daughter Felicity received when she was a baby.
Carl’s chilly challenge involved having an ice bath in a chest freezer every day for 116 days in his back garden.
He said: “I decided to fundraise for Embrace because of my daughter Felicity. She was born at Doncaster Royal Infirmary at 29 weeks, premature, with a rare condition called hydrops fetalis.
“The doctors gave her a 5% chance of survival.”
Hydrops fetalis is a condition in the fetus that is characterised by an accumulation of fluid. When Felicity was born, she had a lot of fluid on her belly and around her head. After she was delivered by an emergency caesarean, they had to drain fluid from around her lungs and subsequently had to resuscitate her.
She urgently needed to be transported to Sheffield by Embrace for specialist neonatal care. With mum, Charlie, still recovering from surgery, Carl had no choice but to leave his wife there in Doncaster and go with Felicity and the Embrace team.
Embrace is Sheffield Children’s highly specialist, round-the-clock transport service for critically ill infants and children in Yorkshire and the Humber who require care in another hospital in the region or further afield.
Carl said: “Embrace got her in the ambulance and made sure she was OK, then they made sure I was OK.
“I was a bit all over the place, but they sat me down in the back of the ambulance, made sure I had something to eat, something to drink, spoke to me and made sure that I was aware that I’m not going to be any good to look after Felicity if I was all over the place and not looking after myself.
“They put me at ease a bit more, and that really stuck with me. Now she’s all right, I want to try and do my bit to help raise as much money as I can.”
Felicity was cared for at The Jessop Wing, part of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, until she was stable enough to be moved to Sheffield Children’s Hospital, as she needed multiple surgeries.
Carl said: “She had multiple surgeries on her stomach; they found a blockage in her first week and a perforation, and then they had to go back in after that to fix something else. She really went through it, bless her, but they looked after her at Sheffield Children’s Hospital until she came home.
“We have three boys already, but no one explains the possibilities of what might happen if your baby comes early or there are problems; it just sort of hits you, and you don’t know what to do.
“We didn’t really have time to feel a lot. There were a lot of nerves, a lot of scariness when you get taken into rooms, and you get told that she might not make it, and there’s a good chance she might not make it; that happened a few times, but she just carried on fighting.”
Carl and Felicity’s experience with Embrace and Sheffield Children’s inspired him to do his unique fundraiser.
He said: “116 days is the amount of time that Felicity spent in hospital altogether.
“People should donate because it’s absolutely fantastic what they do. The amount of children that they look after is absolutely unreal and they need the support to be able to carry on doing that.”
Jo Whiston, Lead Nurse at Embrace, said: “It is lovely to hear such positive feedback to share with the team. We recognise that it can be a challenging time for the families of the infants and children who require transferring, and it’s important to us that they are supported.”
Could you take on your own unique fundraiser for our charity? Get in touch on fundraising@sheffieldchildrens.org to let us know.
