Charity needs help to make new unit a reality (From Daily Echo)

Smile4Wessex needs help to make new unit a reality

3:10pm Wednesday 25th January 2012 in Fareham

FOR little Isabella it will mean she will be getting top quality care in a world-class unit, with her family by her side throughout.

After suffering a bleed on her brain when she was just four days old, Isabella and her family, from Knowle, have been regular visitors to the children’s neurological ward at Southampton General Hospital.

Shoehorned into a cramped space, the specialist team perform little miracles every day but the bright colours and homely touches cannot hide the fact that the existing ward is far from ideal and is essentially a ward, playroom, kitchen and office all rolled into one.

But with the help of Daily Echo readers all that is about to change, with the launch of the Smile4Wessex Children’s Neurological Centre appeal to raise £150,000 towards building a new specialist £600,000 unit.

As previously reported, the new centre has been an ambition for doctors at Southampton General Hospital for more than eight years but the charity needs your help to make it a reality.

It will be twice the size and have two more beds than the current ward and it will boast a six-bed high-dependency unit, plus better accommodation for families to allow parents to stay with their child, a dedicated playroom and a quiet room for parents.

Isabella’s dad Paul Saunders said: “It is a very traumatic time for any family whose child needs treatment on the ward and the severity of most people’s stay in there is taxing as it is, so this new centre will make a massive difference.

“It will be fantastic, giving parents the chance to stay with their child in some comfort because at the moment you are lucky to get a camp bed cramped in the room and giving the youngsters the room to play around and enjoy a much nicer environment.

“At the moment the team do a great job and make the most of what they have got but it is certainly not comfortable and this new centre will lift the spirits of patients, which only aids recovery.”

The centre will be a lasting legacy to 15-year-old Richard Bowler, who died suddenly after a brain haemorrhage, as the charity set up in his memory celebrates its tenth anniversary.

To get involved in the fundraising drive, call Neil Westbrook on 023 8079 8882 or email neilw@smile4 wessex.org.