Madison Ellouise Haswell’s Story

In loving memory of Madison Ellouise Haswell.

We lost our precious baby girl Madison on the 15th of January 2012, 39 weeks into pregnancy. We were lucky enough to have the care of the Royal Victoria Infirmary to help us not only through her birth but also the days that followed.

The Royal Victoria Infirmary has a facility called the Halcyon Suite that is used in situations like ours.  It is a self-contained suite with all the facilities needed to enable you to spend precious time with your baby such as beds for parents, a shower, fridge etc.  They don’t put a time limit on how long you stay so we got to stay in the suite with Madison for almost 2 days, they provided her tiny clothes, a Moses basket and they have a cold room that helped prolong our time with her, as her body began to deteriorate in the heat, which meant we could sleep knowing she was nearby and we would still have time with her when we woke.

They understand that you will only get one chance to have these precious moments and they help to make them as special as they can, they even provided us with keepsakes such as a lock of hair and hand and footprints.  I had never heard of this suite until I had to use it but since it all happened I have been shocked to find that it is used roughly 200 times every year.  That’s 200 local families going through the same pain we have. 200. Not as few as you may think.

John and Katie xxx

John and Katie chose to fundraise for Tiny Lives

“The NHS cannot provide everything that makes the Halcyon Suite what it is so we have decided to raise as much money as we can to help towards making sure anybody having to use the suite has the same help we did. Tiny Lives is the fund behind this and they also support the Special Care Baby Unit with buying the extras for the 600 premature or ill babies admitted there every year.”

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/katie-haswell