Twins, Eden & Olive’s Fundraising Page – Donations for huge travel expenses

In January, gorgeous twins Eden & Olive were born in Wellington Hospital under a specialist team. Eden was immediately diagnosed with Oesophageal Artresia – meaning her oesophagus did not meet her stomach. She underwent surgery to insert a line directly into her stomach to be able to feed her. Being premmie in size, they had to wait until she was bigger before they operated again to stretch & fix her oesophagus to her stomach. After 7 weeks and lots of complications, Eden was able to be fed orally and also receive top ups through a mickey button straight into her stomach.

The family are from Napier and for 3 ½ months, Mum stayed in Wellington at Ronald McDonald House with Olive. Dad travelled to and from, trying to keep his job going and also support his wife and new babies, sometimes making the trip twice in one week when things got tough. A total of 15 and half round trips, 316km each way!

The family are now back home. Eden still continues to have the mickey button in her tummy and is still being fed both orally and through this button. She will have to see the surgeon again to have it removed when he is confident that she is able to feed sufficiently.

As you can imagine the huge costs incurred with the frequent travel to and from Wellington, mostly driving, but flying also in emergencies to be there to support his wife and new babies as much as he could.

Under usual circumstances they would be offered financial assistance by paying for their travel, but in this case they have said no because the Dad is not the primary support person, the mother is! Even though there were two babies, one in hospital, one not and a Mum who went through four bouts of illness herself, one requiring surgery, plus coping with being a first time Mum to twins. They still fail to recognise the support of the father, who travelled to and from, trying to hold his job down and offer support at the same time.

This family have really had a difficult time, emotionally and financially and we are asking for any donations to help them out.

A note from Mum and Dad: We would sincerely like to thank all those who have shown their support on this great page and also in other ways. The human spirit is alive & we extremely grateful!