Media Centre

Welcome to the Tiny Tickers’ media centre where you can stay up-to-date on news about our work,  heart family stories and our current campaigns. You can read all our recent press releases in our news section.

We can provide expert spokespeople on a range of congenital heart defect-related topics. We can also supply the latest facts and figures and can answer any questions about heart conditions in babies.

What does Tiny Tickers do?

Tiny Tickers is a small national charity that works to improve the chances of babies born with a serious heart condition. We want every baby with a serious heart condition to have the best chance of survival and quality of life. We’ve got a proud track record of helping improve the detection, care and treatment of babies with congenital heart defects. Founded in 1999 by world-renowned fetal cardiologist Dr Helena Gardiner, she realised many of the babies she was caring for could have been helped earlier.

One in every 125 babies is born with a heart problem but fewer than half of those are spotted during pregnancy and, in some parts of the UK, detection rates are as low as 1 in 4. That means over 1,000 newborns leave hospitals in the UK every year with no one realising they have a potentially life-threatening heart condition. Babies with undetected heart defects will often fall into the early stages of heart failure – significantly impacting their long-term quality of life. Some will die before anyone realises they have a poorly heart, or before getting the surgery that would save them. We want to increase early detection rates of cardiac conditions thus improving a baby’s chances of survival and long-term quality of life.

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Media Contact

For interviews, case studies and expert comment on congenital heart disease (CHD) in babies, please contact Aimee Foster, Fundraising and Communications Manager.

Email: aimee@tinytickers.org

Please note these contact details are for media enquiries only. For other enquiries, please visit contact us.

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Spokespeople

Tiny Tickers has a range of spokespeople able to comment on congenital heart defects in babies, detection of these defects, and the issues facing families of a baby with a serious heart condition.

These include:

Jon Arnold, Chief Executive

The Tiny Tickers’ Chief Executive is a trained journalist and a former executive at the Press Association, having held roles including Northern Editor and Head of Editorial Production.

Jon’s daughter, Zoe (now 16), was born with a life-threatening CHD which was thankfully detected during pregnancy.

He has also served as Chair of the Northern grant-making committee of BBC Children in Need.

Anne Rhodes, Head of Training

As a specialist sonographer with a focus on fetal cardiac scanning, Anne has devoted much of her career to the advancement of understanding the importance of early detection of cardiac abnormalities in unborn babies. Anne has responsibility of our UK-wide training in fetal cardiac scanning techniques.

Professor Alan D Cameron MD FRCOG FRCP, Trustee

Alan Cameron has been a consultant obstetrician for 20 years, currently in the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. As a former chair of the RCR/RCOG standing joint committee he helped develop the current RCOG Ultrasound training modules. He is a  co-opted member of the Council and Executive Committee of the European Board and College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Other spokespeople are available to discuss specific campaigns and topics.