Shetland Family Praises ECHC’s Invaluable Support In Time of Need

Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity Press releases

Cyndi and Michael Pottinger, have praised the ECHC, client of Holyrood PR, for their care and support throughout Charlie's illness.A FAMILY from Shetland has urged people to continue to support the newly named Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC) after revealing how it helped them when their son fell seriously ill.

At just eight months old, Charlie Pottinger was flown by air ambulance to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh (RHSC) where he was treated for Pneumonia and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).

During this time, Cyndi and Michael Pottinger, Charlie’s parents, experienced first-hand the vital work that ECHC does for young patients and their families and has commended the charity for enabling the family to have a more positive hospital experience.

Their praise comes as it was revealed that ECHC has become the new name for the Sick Kids Friends Foundation – and the move coincides with the decision to rename the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, which the charity has supported for 25 years, as the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) when it relocates to a new purpose-built building in early 2018.

Cyndi added: “After being to the hospital three times for Charlie I can’t imagine how we would have coped without the work of the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity.

“We live in a close knit community and have been avid fundraisers within it, we have planned skydives and there are collection boxes in all the shops in the village. Everyone is such a keen supporter of the charity.

“I think the new name and logo are brilliant! Especially with the move to the new hospital it is leaving the idea of ‘sick’ behind.

“Having a new name shouldn’t cause any drop in donations if anything it should increase with the hospital now taking in older children.”

Roslyn Neely, CEO of the ECHC, said: “Through the amazing support and fundraising of many, many people, we’ve supported the work of the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital for 25 years. But with the hospital changing to a new name, we felt this would be a positive opportunity to also update our own name.

“Aside from our name, nothing will change in terms of the work that we do. We continue to be a grant giving organisation which exists to transform the experiences of children and young people in hospital so that they can be a child first and a patient second.

 

“The clinical work of the hospital is world class and often ground-breaking. However, we rely completely on the public for all our donations and we still need support to help us provide the magical extras to benefit the hundreds of thousands of babies, children and young people who will be patients over future decades.”

Cyndi said: “As we live in Shetland we would have had to sort accommodation that we would have undoubtedly spent very little time in. Thankfully we were able to stay close by at all times this wouldn’t be possible without the use of the PJ’s Loft parent’s accommodation, which the charity supports.

“Even the little things they do like giving gifts to the children after having a blood test completely changes the experience for the child. Charlie still talks about the chicken toy he got five years ago.

“The work the charity does is absolutely brilliant, they help turn around hospital visits into something much less stressful and a lot less scary for the children.”

Charlie, now age 9, is a healthy young boy who has made a full recovery thanks to the vital work of the hospital and charity.

The ECHC rebrand will better reflect the changes at the new hospital, which will now treat young people up to the age of 16 – previously it was up to 13 years – as well as providing child and adolescent mental health services.

The charity recently reported it had had a record-breaking 2016, smashing its target for donations to soar past the £1.8m mark, as well as paying out £3,180,815 in grants – the largest amount ever paid in one year.

The majority of the £3million donated has been used to fund a package of art and therapeutic design projects at the new hospital at Little France – the largest programme of its kind in the UK.

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