A TRUST that looks after families with sick children has been thanked for its support, by two different generations of the same family.
This year, Crawford House is celebrating 25 years of keeping families together by their child’s hospital bedside.
Opened in 1996, The Sick Children’s Trust ‘Home from Home’ has supported over 12,000 families, like the Gordon family, giving them a place to stay and one less thing to worry about when their child is in hospital.
Andrea Gordon, from Middlesbrough, first stayed in 1996 during her youngest son, Sam’s treatment for leukaemia. For the first two weeks of his chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Mrs Gordon and husband Kevin, could always be by his side.
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They were supported with a place to stay at Crawford House which is located just minutes from Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
Sam left hospital after those two weeks but continued his treatment for a further two years with Andrea and Kevin being supported by Crawford House several times during this period.
After those two years Sam’s leukaemia went into remission and it hasn’t returned for the last 22 years.
In 2020, Andrea’s eldest son, Carl and his wife Lauren from Stockton on Tees, would also stay at Crawford House in 2020 when their son, Archie, needed surgery at just a day old.
During this time Carl and Lauren were supported by The Sick Children’s Trust’s other ‘Home from Home’ at the Freeman Scott House, before Archie was transferred to the RVI and they were given a room at Crawford House.
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Lauran Gordon said: “At my 20 week scan it was discovered that my son, Archie, had a problem with his lung and there was a 50 per cent chance he would need surgery when he was born.
“ When Archie was born, he was diagnosed with congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation.
“We were told that this had caused one of the lobes on the top half of his left lung to developed into a cyst which was making it hard for him to breathe.
"Archie was transferred across Newcastle to the Freeman Hospital where he had surgery at just a day old to remove the entire lobe and cyst to stop it impacting his breathing.
“This would not affect the rest of lung which would still continue to develop.
"During this time we were both supported at The Sick Children’s Trust ‘Home from Home’ Scott House located just minutes from the Freeman.
"Being able to stay at Scott House made such a difference to us, we live an hour and a half away from Newcastle and making that trip every day to be with Archie would have been horrendous.
"It was absolutely priceless for us to be able to stay just a five-minute walk away from the ward as, no matter what, we could always be back by Archie’s hospital bedside.
“After his operation, Archie was transferred back to the RVI for specialist care and put on a ventilator to help with his breathing until his lungs got stronger.
"We were always by his side because we were supported by the charity’s other ‘Home from Home’ in Newcastle Crawford House."
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