Poppy's story

Four year old Poppy was born with congenital heart disease and club hands.

The little girl faced heart surgery before she was one year old and then major upper limb surgery a year later. Since then she has had many other operations on her hands and she has to be fed by a tube as she is unable to swallow.

Poppy’s complex health problems have meant that most of her life has been spent living on a hospital ward, with only a few days here and there living at home with her family.

When WellChild Nurse Jane Alvey came into Poppy and Olivia’s lives Olivia says it felt as though an angel had come to help them. Poppy was recovering from yet another operation intended to give her more use of her hands, but it had failed, leaving her with infected wounds which needed heavy bandaging.

Olivia says Jane was calm and understanding – she researched the best dressings for Poppy’s hands and made sure she could be looked after at home rather than having to go to hospital every time the bandages needed changing. She also helped Olivia deal with Poppy’s feeding tube and other medical procedures which can now be done at home where Poppy is calm and comfortable.

Visits to the hospital upset Poppy who knows the route in the car and starts to cry before she even arrives. Now she has WellChild Nurse Jane to help her she doesn’t have to make these stressful hospital visits so often. Poppy started nursery school in 2008 and Jane trained the staff there to give her feeds and answered all their questions so Poppy could be treated as normally as possible.

When there are times of trauma, Olivia knows Jane is always just a phone call away and will always listen and try to come up with solutions.

Olivia is very grateful to Jane her WellChild Nurse. She said: “She has been a saviour and in the really dark times has been just wonderful. She is so brilliant because she listens and gets things done, which is so difficult when so many professionals are involved in Poppy’s care.

“I just can’t thank her enough and with more surgery round the corner I know she will be there. I really want to share our story to help WellChild as my way of thanking Jane and recognising her hard work.”