1 in every 100 babies born in the UK has a serious heart condition. That’s around one baby born every two hours fighting congenital heart disease (CHD). Tiny Tickers is the only UK charity dedicated to the early detection and care of those babies. We know that spotting a heart defect as early as medically possible improves a baby’s chances of survival and long-term quality of life. Sadly, 1,000 heart babies leave hospitals every year with no-one knowing they have a life-threatening heart condition, putting them in grave danger of going into heart failure. Some of those babies won’t make it back to hospital in time to receive the treatment that could save them. Tiny Tickers is changing that.
Please watch this video to learn more about the amazing job Tiny Tickers does or visit their website.
For us, Tiny Tickers was a lifeline when we were at our lowest. Our heads were filled with so many questions without answers: ‘Why Teo?’, ‘Why us?’, ‘Why did everything go so terribly wrong?’. We felt very isolated as nobody could understand our pain. Finding the Loss Stories on Tiny Tickers made us feel understood. Reading other parents’ experiences was like reading our own minds. It wasn’t comfort, it wasn’t peace, it was just knowing that we were not alone. Nowhere else had we found such an open space for parents who had lost a child to CHD to share their children’s stories in such a beautiful way.
Eventually, we found the courage to share Teo’s story to help other parents in the same way those stories had helped us. From the first moment we contacted Tiny Tickers, we felt that Teo mattered to them and the empathy, warmth and love we have received from them has been incredible.
Tiny Tickers advocates for the earliest possible detection of any heart defect and supports all the brave heart warriors and their families in so many ways. However, it also remembers with such love and pride those who, like Teo, were gone too soon. We cherish them for that.
For the past two years Matt and Teo’s uncles, Chris and Sam, have taken part in the Peak District Ultra Challenge to raise money for Tiny Tickers in honour of Teo. Incredibly, they raised around £5000 each year, which is an amazing amount to help tiny heart warriors.
We are determined to keep on supporting this amazing charity as we will be eternally grateful for their ongoing support to our family.