First Touch St George’s
First Touch St George’s
SAVING BABIES’ LIVES: FIRST TOUCH CELEBRATES 25 YEARS
A sunny Saturday in June was the perfect setting for a party, and there was no greater cause that deserved marking than the 25th birthday of charity First Touch.
First Touch is the official charity of St George’s neonatal unit and funds state-of- the- art equipment and specialist staff training which are outside of the scope of NHS budgets.
It also supports families during their stay on the unit and over the last 25 years the organisation has helped over 15,000 babies.
Louise Williams, Charity Co-ordinator, told us what its main objectives are:
“Medical equipment is very expensive and through our work we can give the neo natal unit the best and most modern incubators a lot more quickly than they would receive from the NHS.
“A transport incubator is around £60,000 but it’s not just the large-scale items that we help with. Breast-feeding is often very difficult for mothers with children in neonatal units and so breast pumps are crucial, but they can cost £600.”
Recently the charity has dedicated a lot of money to the facilities in the hospital for families to be in while their babies are ill. Babies can spend months on the ward. First Touch has put a huge effort into making the environment that parents are in as pleasant as possible.
First Touch has raised several million pounds over the last 25 years and many of the children it has helped came along to the birthday party, which involved lots of games and lots of cake!
