A little but massively, important thank you.

Once we had been home for a few days and we were settling back into life away from The Tree House we started to think about how we could thank the staff who had looked after Ivy so well. In recent years Stepping Hill has received some bad press but I can honestly say we have never had anything other than incredible care, especially through our slightly complicated pregnancy, Ivy's lovely water birth and now with her diabetes. Her specialist consultant and several of the nurses who we had spent time with are running the Manchester 10k, in May, for Mediequip 4 Kids and we thought it would be nice to support them. 

We asked our nearest and dearest if they would like to support them too and make a small donation. Everybody replied immediately and said they would be delighted to donate. In 2 weeks we had raised £400! An amount I never even imagined we would be able to collect.  

To go with the donation we also made them a very special thank you card to remind them of the key role they held in saving Ivy, helping her get better and going home. We used 8 photographs of Ivy, starting with one taken half an hour before we first took her to hospital, so poorly and thirsty, clinging her little water bottle, ending with one of her with a big smile, with her special nurse backpack full of her diabetics supplies, ready to go home. The photographs in between show the 'Ivy Revival'. A time line showing the progress she made, the first photo was in black and white, slowly they increased in colour, until the last was full colour and vibrant. Sam created the images and I played my part by cutting and sticking them together!

We took the card and donation to The Tree House after an appointment with one of our Diabetes Nurses, of course the nurses swooned around Ivy, all desperate for a cuddle.  They didn't actually recognise me at first, proof that there really is no place like home for some R & R! When we gave them the card they cried and we cried, they were so surprised and grateful for the donation and the card was passed around every member of staff before being put pride of place on the front desk. Ivy had her photo taken with the team on shift and she will receive a letter of thanks for helping The Tree House, all of these will be little memoirs of her diagnosis journey, of The Ivy Revival.