Tiny Tickers Quadruples Giving Tuesday Fundraising Target
Giving Tuesday is an international day of charitable giving, celebrated by charities and individuals all around the world. This year, Tiny Tickers had one simple ambition for Giving Tuesday – we wanted to raise £725 in order to place one pulse oximetry machine in a hospital.
Every baby deserves the test that could save their life and we hoped that we could make a change on Giving Tuesday for the 1,500 babies that one machine would test. We knew that our supporters, and the extended heart community, would dig deep and share our commitment to providing every baby in the UK with the test.
However, we were overwhelmed and delighted to watch the donations add up to an incredible £3085 – meaning we can buy and place four pulse oximetry machines. 6,000 babies will receive a potentially life-saving pulse oximetry test every year as a direct result of our Giving Tuesday appeal and the generosity of our supporters.
Our Giving Tuesday appeal was part of our wider Test for Tommy campaign, through which we aim to place 330 pulse oximetry machines throughout the UK by 2021. We dedicated Test for Tommy to the memory of baby Tommy McKellar, who passed away at 11 days old from undetected congenital heart disease in 2015.
Tommy’s dad, Andy, said, “I’d like to personally thank every person that has supported the Test for Tommy campaign. From donations, to helping us spread the word, raising awareness of CHD and also messages of support.
It’s been fantastic to see such an overwhelming reaction to Tommy’s story. We feel it really highlights the need for pulse oximetry to be available to every newborn. No matter how hard it is for us to relive the pain of losing our beautiful boy, it is the right decision and the reward is seeing the babies who may have followed Tommy be saved.
Thank you once again for your amazing continued support. It really does make such an enormous difference to the lives of entire families. We can only imagine what life would be like if Tommy was here today, a pain we wish to stop for any other parents.
Every tiny ticker deserves this test with your help we can make this a reality.”
One of our supporters, Jen Sevorg said, ‘I can’t think of a better way of celebrating our little girl’s second birthday than by donating to this incredible cause. Lottie was born with undiagnosed COA and VSD and has undergone two open heart surgeries plus a spell on ECLS/ECMO. She is our little warrior and makes us proud every single day. From the bottom of our hearts thank you for the amazing work you are doing.’
Tiny Tickers’ CEO, Jon Arnold, was overwhelmed by the support we received. He says, ‘We were stunned and absolutely delighted with the support for our Test for Tommy appeal on Giving Tuesday. The amount our supporters raised in just one day through their generous donations was phenomenal, as were the offers of help, kind messages and general support for the charity. The whole team is so grateful to everyone who got involved.’
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