BraveheartsNI

BraveheartsNI  was inspired and developed by my daughter Shealyn in 2013. When she was 14 she was admitted into the RVH in heart failure and we realised to our horror she now had to be admitted into the adult ward instead of the Children’s Heart Unit . There was nothing to support her stay as a young teenager. Indeed, we had to wait 11 hours for a bed in the cardiac department and the only one available was in with 5 pensioner men!!

The recently established Adult Congenital Heart Disease team in the RVH have no additional support and therefore Shealyn and I devised Braveheartsni.

BraveheartsNI have grown from the strong volunteer ethos of HeartbeatNI. We are here to offer help and support and get the word around to as many families as possible. 

The Ballymena group is run by the Bravehearts themselves with dedication and pride. For the first time they are able to shape the help and support they need as teenagers and adultswhich was never available before, simply due to the fact our CHD children weren’t surviving this long into their adulthood.

We are desperate for fundraising events and simply getting our name out there to encourage Bravehearts and their families to get in touch to enable us to help wherever it’s needed – financially, pastorally and increasingly with mental health support.

Our aim is to raise awareness, provide support and build fundraising to enable us to open a ‘teenager/young adult’ward. When I say there are no resources for our cardiac teenagers, I mean just that. They are in hospital for weeks/months on end with no TV, Wi-Fi or technology to help with continuing their studies. They look at stark bare white walls, I myself had to sleep on a chair for weeks as Shealyn was too young to leave overnight in an adult ward (we have since purchased 2 bed chairs). BraveheartsNI have already provided teaching aids, such as laptops, Ipads and purchased online learning resources.

We had the privilege recently of providing medical equipment to enable a young Braveheart to join her family at home for her last weeks after spending months in the hospital. This enabled the family to spend her last days at her side in the comfort of their own home. The other Bravehearts befriended her in the hospital, doing her nails & hair and some simple company. They rallied around and I was incredibly proud of them. This is the essence of our purpose.

Until now the norm was to shy away from exercise. Through the collaboration between BraveheartsNI and JT Inspires our Bravehearts are being offered and encouraged to partake in free structured PE/exercise classes.

The sky is the limit for our Bravehearts now – but we need your help! 

We need to spread the word to families like us out there.