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The NICU Foundation - Closure
After more than ten years fundraising, supporting the NHS South West Neonatal Network, as well as growing awareness of the Neonatal journey nationally, the NICU Foundation charity will be closing at the end of September 2024.
As trustees we have found that the fundraising landscape in Neonates has changed dramatically, particularly in the last five years during the Covid and post Covid era. Whilst we will always be very proud of all our small charity has achieved (punching well above it's weight) with the support of committed fundraisers over the last decade, we have found it a growing challenge to continue to grow fundraising efforts. This has been more noticeable in recent years where so many units have set up individual charities for this purpose - something we applaud and support, given someone experiencing an interaction with a specific Neonatal Unit will always favour giving back to that location.
We have received fantastic support from NHS staff, parents and wider family members over the years, fundraising to support units with equipment, training and facilities, as well as providing insight for parents and family members embarking on a stay on a neonatal unit, and are very proud of the impact our small charity has achieved.
We are however an extremely small team who have run the charity voluntarily for more than a decade, and despite several attempts, we have been unable to attract the necessary additional support and volunteers to continue to operate the charity for the longer term.
We will always be very proud of the impact we have made, with units across the South West benefiting from helpful, and sometimes even vital equipment to support babies in their early days/weeks/months of life, as well as the international impact our animations have had in supporting new parents understand their Neonatal experience. This alongside the training and learning events which have been funded for NHS staff, parents and the network, leave a very positive legacy.
We are lucky to have had some great support over the last couple of challenging years, and have used the last of the charity funds to pay for an NHS South West Neonatal Network Conference, attended by all key personnel from the Network; we also provided equipment for twins in the transport services team, and some smaller purchases of items like breast pumps for the units which are still limited in their ability to offer these to new mums, and finally 'cuddle bundles' to support developmental care.
Our next steps during September will be to remove our footprint from fundraising sites, social media and we will close our website. We are pleased to confirm that our animations will be transferred to the ownership of the NHS South West Neonatal Network for future distribution and continued use to any organisation or individual that may benefit from them.
Thank you for all of your support and engagement over the years, we are very proud to have supported such a wonderful team of people, who are committed to saving miniature lives everyday.
To contact the NHS South West Neonatal Network:
Yours faithfully
Charley Maher
Chair of Trustees
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The NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) Foundation is a non-profit charity that, in partnership with the South West Neonatal Network, supports the delivery of Neonatal Care within the 12 Units across the South West of England.
These NICUs play a significant and life changing role in the lives of so many people across the southwest. With a population of 15 million and growing, the southwest NICUs now need your support more than ever with the 10,000 premature births happening every single year.
With 1 in every 10 babies born prematurely or sick across the UK, NICUs are an all too familiar sight to thousands of parents who are navigating through the most difficult part of their lives. It’s not only babies that need care, parents also need help and support to understand the important role they can play in the child’s development in the first few weeks and how to balance this with the busy lives we lead.
In order to provide expert and dedicated care to babies and their families, NHS staff require expensive training to identify issues as early as possible, often paid for by donations made to local charities. It is vitally important for staff to be kept at the fore front of medical science and the advancement of technology to enable the support of these young lives.
Although NICUs are funded through the NHS, we look to add three important initiatives that close the gap on the care provided:
Thanks to your fundraising, babies born prematurely are travelling home with their families who have the knowledge that expert care and advice will always be on hand if needed. These young lives and their parents deserve every opportunity to have the best care and with your support, we can get one step closer.
The experience of a premature birth affects the lives of so many and through our partnership with the South West Neonatal Network we can equip, educate, train, counsel and care for the thousands this will happen to in the future.
If you need this website translated to another language, please visit https://translate.google.co.uk/
Some images provided for use by the SW Neonatal Network, photography courtesy of Alex Allwood
Copyright © 2022 The NICU Foundation
After more than ten years fundraising, supporting the NHS South West Neonatal Network, as well as growing awareness of the Neonatal journey nationally, the NICU Foundation charity will be closing at the end of September 2024.
As trustees we have found that the fundraising landscape in Neonates has changed dramatically, particularly in the last five years during the Covid and post Covid era. Whilst we will always be very proud of all our small charity has achieved (punching well above it's weight) with the support of committed fundraisers over the last decade,
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