Sheffield Children's Hospital: Mum taking on ultimate challenge after hospital cared for son for 444 days

Anna Burgin’s two-year-old son, Brodie, has recently returned home after spending a total of 444 days in Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Brodie was receiving life-saving treatment for a condition, where tissue in the intestine becomes inflamed, called Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC), for which he needed multiple operations.

Brodie contracted NEC just a few days after birth and the decision to operate was made when he was three weeks old. In his first operation, 50 per cent of his large intestine was removed, but unfortunately a second operation was needed and 50 per cent of his small intestine was then also removed.

Brodie later had emergency surgery due to the high risk of sepsis.

In total, Bodie stayed at Sheffield Children’s Hospital for 444 days and underwent nine operations, but he has now returned home to his family.

Brodie’s mum, Anna, from Dronfield, is now taking on the three peaks challenge, where she will climb the UK’s three highest points – Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell Pike – in 24 hours.

She said: “The staff at Sheffield Children’s don’t know how grateful we are to them. His care plan during those 15 months was a multi-service one involving nurses, dietitians, a complex care team, speech and language therapists, the doctors, the surgeons; and not to forget the play therapists who did a wonderful job keeping him entertained and developing, or the three house keepers who brought me food and endless coffees!

“When I was choosing how I wanted to support, the challenge needed to be something big, but something that gave me time to think. I haven’t really stopped, reflected, or fully processed the first 15 months of Bodie’s life or how it had impacted our family, so that’s what I’ll be doing whilst climbing 10,476ft!

“When Bodie was in hospital I would spend so much of that time sat down, as he would be hooked up to a feeding tube for up to 20 hours a day some days. I think doing this challenge over 24 hours will really allow me to reflect on that time.”

So far, Anna has raised over £1,400 for Sheffield Children’s Hospital, ahead of her challenge attempt in September.

If you can support Anna and donated to her fundraiser, you can find the JustGiving page here.