We need YOU to run, walk, cycle, skate, hula-hoop (however you would like) 35 miles in January to support Tiny Lives and Ward 35!
We’re in the same boat as you. We’ve eaten far too much this Christmas and we’re not feeling ourselves but our 35 for 35 challenge is here to save the day!
Covering 35 miles throughout the month of January is a realistic and attainable goal that will help you kickstart your 2023 the right way all whilst raising funds for Tiny Lives!
By encouraging your friends and family to sponsor your challenge, you’ll be raising vital funds for premature, sick newborn babies and neonatal families. You could event get the kids involved and make it a family activity!
Fancy the challenge?
Step 1 – Create a fundraising page. we recommend JustGiving. Simply click ‘Fundraise for Us’ to get started.
Step 2 – Spread the word. Share the news of your amazing commitment on social media, with friends and colleagues, with everyone! The more people who get access to your fundraising page, the more donations you may get.
Step 3 – Get moving! Whether you prefer to move indoors or outdoors, little and often, or long-distance, as long as you manage the 35 miles before 31st Jan, you’ll have completed something incredible! A tracking app such as Strava can be useful for keeping track of how far you’ve gone (and it integrates with Just Giving too!) You can also track your distance using your Fitbit or Apple watch!
We’ll be behind you all of the way, so if you need anything during your challenge just email us – we’d love to see some pics too if you do choose to take part!
Your support will make a huge difference to our neonatal families. You can find out about what we fund here to help you motivate yourself to move!
Suitable for everyone to get involved in, we want to see you turn #PurpleForPrem on the 17th November for World Prematurity Day and Tiny Lives!
Ask if your school or office to hold a dress down purple day! Hold a bake sale selling purple cupcakes, or simply don your favourite purple get up. However you choose to get involved, we hope that you will join us in raising awareness for those impacted by prematurity, and help to raise vital funds for Tiny Lives.
Tiny Lives have had some exciting news direct from the North Pole – Santa has kindly offered to write and post some very special letters!
These letters are a perfect way for ALL families to help support premature and sick newborn babies and their families on the RVI’s Neonatal Unit.
Our Santa letters are personalised for each child and come direct to your address starting on December 5th. We suggest a £5 or £10 donation per letter (you can choose at the checkout), which includes postage costs!
The funds raised from the sale of these letters will go a long way to supporting families on the RVI Neonatal Unit through this festive period and beyond.
Please Note – Our Santa Letters will have a brand new design for 2023 –meaning if you ordered one last year, you can still get involved in the festive fun this year!
The Tiny Lives Ball is a great evening of fundraising including both a raffle and auction with some great prizes to be won. This year, our host was the always wonderful Pete Graves!
The evening started with a sparkling drinks reception, followed by a three course meal and throughout the evening guests were entertained with the return of everyone’s favourite, the ‘Flag Fiesta’ where everyone’s guaranteed a win, a photobooth and other fun for all.
Please remember Tiny Lives is an independent, local charity supporting premature and sick newborn babies and their families, who have experienced life in the Neonatal Unit at the RVI in Newcastle. We can only do this because of our wonderful supporters.
We’d also like to say a HUGE thank you Toni and Kris for their wonderful photography skills! Toni and Kris captured all images on the evening and we can’t thank them enough for documenting the evening.
Our 2023 Sponsors
Tiny Lives Ball Gallery
Click on the images to download a high resolution image.
We are thrilled to announce the return of our Christmas Reunion! This year, the date for our 2023 Christmas Reunion is Saturday November 25th, 10:30 – 14:00 at Kingston Park Stadium.
What IS the Christmas Reunion? This event is specially designed for families that spent time on the RVI’s Neonatal Unit! It’s a chance to come together and enjoy an event full of Christmas cheer and catch up with some old faces as well as meet some new ones!
There will be games, food and entertainment, a sensory area and we’ve also heard a rumour that Santa Claus himself will make an appearance… There are plenty of free activities to get involved with, but we also have some fundraising stalls available including our tombola, raffle AND this year we’ll have items from our shop available to purchase!
This event is recommended for children aged 8 and below and tickets are free, however we ask for a suggested donation of £10 for a family to help Tiny Lives towards the costs of the event (max. 2 adults per family group).
WHERE is the Christmas Reunion? This year, the Christmas Reunion will be held at Kingston Park Stadium (home to the Newcastle Falcons!). This is a fantastic venue just off the A1 with free parking and easily accessible public transport nearby.
HOW do I attend the Reunion? Simply Click Here to book your tickets.
We kindly request that you DO NOT buy tickets through anyone offering to sell them. It’s been brought to our attention that there are several scammers claiming to have tickets for sale when this is not the case. For the safety of our families, all tickets and names are checked on entry at the door.
EE Tyneside have embarked on an epic challenge over the last eight weeks! The team have put an astonishing effort into fundraising coming up with some super creative ways to raise money. Events included sea dips, football tournaments, cake sales, rounders, head shaves, VintEEd (vinted inspired clothes sales) tombolas, ice bucket challenges and even more!
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Alix Burke for nominating Tiny Lives for the eight weeks of fundraising. Alix’s twins Chase and Tatum (featured in the photo!) spent time on the unit and so did her six year old Frankie!
We’d also like to mention Chloe Weston, Janine Peake, and Chloe Burns for their wonderful efforts.
Rachel Hardwick, our Funding and Partnerships Officer said ‘The amount EE have raised in eight weeks is astonishing. The efforts their team have gone to to raise vital funds for Tiny Lives is incredible and we can’t thank everyone enough for fundraising for Tiny Lives.’
Tiny Lives would like to wish Pat Dulson a very happy retirement (we’ll miss her lots!). Many of you will have met Pat during your time on the unit. Her knowledge, expertise and kindness shone through everyday and her commitment to supporting Neonatal Families made her such a beloved member of staff. We know we aren’t the only ones who will miss seeing Pat’s lovely face on the unit but we hope she enjoys her well deserved retirement!
Patricia Dulson, Clinical Specialist Neonatal Physiotherapist has retired from her current role at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Pat came to Newcastle to train as a Physiotherapist in 1979 and started work at Newcastle General Hospital in January 1983. Pat has had a long career within the Paediatric Physiotherapy Team and in the last 20 years has worked within neonatal care as a neonatal specialist physiotherapist. Pat retires after 40 years’ service for the NHS.
Pat was one of the country’s first specialist Neonatal Physiotherapists, having been funded by the Tiny Lives Trust to develop Developmental Care and Neonatal Follow-up Services at the Newcastle Neonatal Service. Her exemplary knowledge, experience and expertise has been the cornerstone of excellence in Neonatal Physiotherapy and Neonatal Care locally, regionally (within the Northern Neonatal Network) and nationally.
Locally, in Newcastle Pat used her clinical skill and passion for supporting babies and families to develop developmental care guidelines and support the implementation of these practises within the Newcastle Neonatal Service. This is included Tiny Lives funding developmental care aids and environmental improvement for babies and their families (such as incubator covers for light protection and sound monitors for sound protection), positioning aids (such as Claire’s Nests) and Miniboos. Pat also designed and delivered the Developmental Care Teaching for health care professionals working in Neonatal Care.
Pat, along with her consultant colleague Dr David Milligan, recognised that babies who had been born very prematurely or those who had suffered brain injury at birth often went on to have difficulties with movement development and learning after discharge home. Together, they developed one of the first neonatal follow-up services in the UK and offered specialist multidisciplinary clinics to infants (and their families) most at risk of neurodevelopmental difficulties allowing infants to be monitored over time and receive early intervention.
Clinically, Pat has continually sought to develop her own clinical skills, keeping up to date with evidence-based care. She developed the Neonatal Follow-up service, setting up one of the first Physiotherapy led General Movements Assessment service within the UK. More recently, Pat was a pioneer with implementing the Tiny Lives funded vCreate secure video technology for healthcare transformation with neonatal follow-up (in Newcastle and the Northern Neonatal Network). This service allowed families to upload videos of their baby’s movement development for virtual interaction with specialist clinicians. This service was expediated by the need for virtual access to healthcare during Covid-19 pandemic.
Pat has always been very generous with her time and clinical expertise. This was highlighted when she developed the Neonatal Developmental Care Guidelines for the Northern Neonatal Network in 2014. The development of these guidelines led to Pat working with the FINE (Family and Infant Neurodevelopmental Education) team to deliver the first Foundation toolkit for Family Centred Developmental Care to staff working within the Northern Neonatal Network. The network continues to fund Annual FINE course training.
Pat was the founding member of the Northern Neonatal Network Allied Health Professional Peer Support Group. Pat started this group to support acute and community-based physiotherapists working with babies and families who had experienced neonatal care. In addition, Pat used this forum to co-ordinate and offer education for therapists interested in working within neonatal care. Pat also founded the Northern Neonatal Network General Movements Assessment Peer Support Group. The General Movements Assessment is a highly evidenced based assessment to identify infants at high risk of cerebral palsy.
Pat was an active member of APCP Neonatal Committee between 2008-2014, developing guidelines, forming relationships with wider Neonatal National Groups (such as British Association of Perinatal Medicine). Pat has always been happy to share her skills and expertise and contributing to the development of APCP Neonatal Physiotherapy guidelines and Neonatal AHP Conferences. The APCP Executive Committee have awarded Pat an APCP gold award for services to neonatal physiotherapy that she was presented with today.
Pat has been an active supporter of research in neonatal care and neonatal physiotherapy. Pat was involved in data collection using Bayleys Assessments of Preterm Infants for EPICure studies, development of E-Tips intervention for infants suffering from perinatal stroke and research into Lacey Assessment of Preterm Infants, General Movements Assessment and outcomes for baby’s born preterm. Pat’s contribution to research is highlighted by her research publications.
Pat continues her support for improving neonatal care by participating as a board member of the Tiny Lives Trust.
We’ve never had weather like it and hopefully next year will be cooler and dryer.
Thank you to all of our incredible runners who took part and raised vital funds for Tiny Lives. Your support truly will make a difference to the lives of our neonatal families! It was so lovely to see you all and we hope to see you again next year!
Click the images below to load the High Resolution Version.
Today, we’re highlighting Anthony and Lewis as they take on the Mini Great North Run and the Great North Run!
In 2015, Lewis was born 16 weeks prematurely weighing only 1lb 11oz. Lewis and his family spent many months on the Neonatal Unit and were inspired by the care provided by the staff and Tiny Lives. This year, Anthony is taking part in multiple events including The Northumbrian Iron Man, The Geordieman Iron Man, The Great North Run, Kielder Marathon, The Gateshead Trial 10k, Ultra Marathon and more! Anthony said ‘Even if I have to crawl across the finish lines, I will!’
Anthony also said ‘Lewis is my number one fan and always at the finish line. He wants to be like daddy and race as well. Lewis had done one race already this year and is looking to do a lot more. He’s taking part in the Mini Great North Run too!’
Francesca, one of our fabulous supporters (who you may recognise as a volunteer at some of our events!) is taking on a TRIPLE GNR Challenge! Francesca plans to take on the Great North 5k, 10k AND Great North Run to raise money for the Tiny Lives Trust!
She said ‘I’m lucky that I am able to work closely with the fantastic Tiny Lives Team, so I know first hand what even the smallest amount donated can do for a family with a premature baby. The charity is very close to my heart and I can’t put into words how grateful I am for all the support they’ve given my family over the years. This is for you Theo ‘
Good Luck to Francesca and all of our other wonderful GNR runners! We’ll see you at the finish line
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