Baby Medical Fee Emergency in Covid-19 Lockdown
Donation protected
This is an Urgent Appeal!
Hello, we are Tom, Annie, & Dandan, the Shelton family. We're in a quarantined town in the Philippines amid the Coronavirus outbreak, and we're about to have a baby!
Annie is due to give birth on the 17th April 2020, just 29 days from the time I write this.
Our town of El Nido has been locked down due to COVID-19. All tourists have been told to leave and none can enter.
The quarantine has caused our fledgling holiday business to collapse. We now have no income, and no money to pay for the birth of our baby.
We are 6 hours away from the nearest functioning hospital in Puerto Princesa city.
Our scans show a baby boy, and he's going to be called David Antonio, after both of our fathers.
Thankfully, mother, baby, and our young son, all appear to be healthy, but the life of our baby is at stake.
We need money for:
Pre-natal ultrasound & consultation
Midwife for birth
Doctor for birth
Post-natal baby scan
Standby money, for medical emergency
Two-way transport to hospital in Puerto Princesa city during lockdown
Rent for basic room near hospital
At least one weeks food (2 adults, 1 child, 1 baby)
Money to cover our rent for one month which will give us a chance to get back on our feet
The infant mortality rate in Philippines is over 5 times higher than in the UK.
Who are we?
Firstly, some background. Some of you may remember news about us in the UK national press , on BBC Radio and TV News (5:12am) in 2018, as well as an article I wrote here .
At the time, the UK’s notorious ‘hostile environment’ had forced our temporary separation due to visa controls on non-EU family members, including Annie & Dandan.
During a devastating few years in the Philippines, we became the targets of a criminal gang, who's crimes against us included theft, kidnap, and two counts of attempted murder. After a police manhunt, the gang were arrested, and are now serving life-long prison sentences. But, we'd lost everything, our business, belongings, even our home, and any means to provide a stable future for our family.
We were truly broken.
The lowest point was collecting empty bottles in the streets, to return them to the stores for their deposit money, just a few pesos, to buy rice and fish to feed ourselves for another day. It was gut-wrenching, humiliating, and humbling. It broke our hearts. Our little boy, Dandan, showed tremendous strength of character through this. He was, and remains our inspiration and motivation, our own little superhero. He is very excited about becoming a big brother to baby David.
We determined never again to face such extremes of poverty, and not let this criminal gang destroy us. But now we have the COVID-19 lock-down to contend with, at a crucial moment in our lives!
The Present
Over the past year, with a lot of hard work, we managed to build a new business, Banana Grove Backpackers Inn .
Until the COVID-19 outbreak, it was a tremendous success. If you read our reviews, you can see that we've thrown our hearts and souls into this business, to build a stable future for our family, at long last. But under quarantine, our income has collapsed.
Until recently, our simple little place was full of happy guests . Our small income was ploughed back into the business in order to grow and provide long-term financial security. Our expected income was enough to pay for the safe delivery of our baby, his birth, care, and the care of Annie during this final month of pregnancy and beyond. Now that security is severely threatened by the lock-down which could last for months.
Our baby will not wait to be born in 'better times'.
We now urgently need to find money to pay for the most basic necessities; a midwife, medical fees, a pre-birth scan, travel expenses to and from the hospital, accommodation to be near the hospital, food, clothing, medical check-ups, rent, money to pay for electricity to run a fridge and a fan, and even money to pay for drinking water.
In short, we need to pay for every essential that our new baby, and our family will need until our business can start to thrive again. But we have no means to pay for any of it!
We live very frugal, simple lives. We have moved out of our house and into a bamboo hut at Banana Grove to save money. We don't have the 'luxuries' of modern living, no car, no TV, no air-con, no oven or microwave, no designer clothes, nor even hot water. We are focused on working hard to provide a safe and loving environment for each other, and a brighter future for our children.
This is urgent. Our family is in real trouble.
This is for baby David Antonio Shelton, our beautiful unborn child,
And so we appeal to your generous heart, your charitable nature, to your human kindness.
Please give what you can to help us get through this incredibly difficult time.
Please give what you can to give him a start in life.
Without your help, and without the essential care that a newborn baby needs, he may not survive.
(Due to platform restrictions, all donations need to be made via my sister in the UK and then transferred to us in the Philippines).
Please give generously, and share this appeal. We will return what we can, when we can.
With the whole of my heart, thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Tom Shelton
Hello, we are Tom, Annie, & Dandan, the Shelton family. We're in a quarantined town in the Philippines amid the Coronavirus outbreak, and we're about to have a baby!
Annie is due to give birth on the 17th April 2020, just 29 days from the time I write this.
Our town of El Nido has been locked down due to COVID-19. All tourists have been told to leave and none can enter.
The quarantine has caused our fledgling holiday business to collapse. We now have no income, and no money to pay for the birth of our baby.
We are 6 hours away from the nearest functioning hospital in Puerto Princesa city.
Our scans show a baby boy, and he's going to be called David Antonio, after both of our fathers.
Thankfully, mother, baby, and our young son, all appear to be healthy, but the life of our baby is at stake.
We need money for:
Pre-natal ultrasound & consultation
Midwife for birth
Doctor for birth
Post-natal baby scan
Standby money, for medical emergency
Two-way transport to hospital in Puerto Princesa city during lockdown
Rent for basic room near hospital
At least one weeks food (2 adults, 1 child, 1 baby)
Money to cover our rent for one month which will give us a chance to get back on our feet
The infant mortality rate in Philippines is over 5 times higher than in the UK.
Who are we?
Firstly, some background. Some of you may remember news about us in the UK national press , on BBC Radio and TV News (5:12am) in 2018, as well as an article I wrote here .
At the time, the UK’s notorious ‘hostile environment’ had forced our temporary separation due to visa controls on non-EU family members, including Annie & Dandan.
During a devastating few years in the Philippines, we became the targets of a criminal gang, who's crimes against us included theft, kidnap, and two counts of attempted murder. After a police manhunt, the gang were arrested, and are now serving life-long prison sentences. But, we'd lost everything, our business, belongings, even our home, and any means to provide a stable future for our family.
We were truly broken.
The lowest point was collecting empty bottles in the streets, to return them to the stores for their deposit money, just a few pesos, to buy rice and fish to feed ourselves for another day. It was gut-wrenching, humiliating, and humbling. It broke our hearts. Our little boy, Dandan, showed tremendous strength of character through this. He was, and remains our inspiration and motivation, our own little superhero. He is very excited about becoming a big brother to baby David.
We determined never again to face such extremes of poverty, and not let this criminal gang destroy us. But now we have the COVID-19 lock-down to contend with, at a crucial moment in our lives!
The Present
Over the past year, with a lot of hard work, we managed to build a new business, Banana Grove Backpackers Inn .
Until the COVID-19 outbreak, it was a tremendous success. If you read our reviews, you can see that we've thrown our hearts and souls into this business, to build a stable future for our family, at long last. But under quarantine, our income has collapsed.
Until recently, our simple little place was full of happy guests . Our small income was ploughed back into the business in order to grow and provide long-term financial security. Our expected income was enough to pay for the safe delivery of our baby, his birth, care, and the care of Annie during this final month of pregnancy and beyond. Now that security is severely threatened by the lock-down which could last for months.
Our baby will not wait to be born in 'better times'.
We now urgently need to find money to pay for the most basic necessities; a midwife, medical fees, a pre-birth scan, travel expenses to and from the hospital, accommodation to be near the hospital, food, clothing, medical check-ups, rent, money to pay for electricity to run a fridge and a fan, and even money to pay for drinking water.
In short, we need to pay for every essential that our new baby, and our family will need until our business can start to thrive again. But we have no means to pay for any of it!
We live very frugal, simple lives. We have moved out of our house and into a bamboo hut at Banana Grove to save money. We don't have the 'luxuries' of modern living, no car, no TV, no air-con, no oven or microwave, no designer clothes, nor even hot water. We are focused on working hard to provide a safe and loving environment for each other, and a brighter future for our children.
This is urgent. Our family is in real trouble.
This is for baby David Antonio Shelton, our beautiful unborn child,
And so we appeal to your generous heart, your charitable nature, to your human kindness.
Please give what you can to help us get through this incredibly difficult time.
Please give what you can to give him a start in life.
Without your help, and without the essential care that a newborn baby needs, he may not survive.
(Due to platform restrictions, all donations need to be made via my sister in the UK and then transferred to us in the Philippines).
Please give generously, and share this appeal. We will return what we can, when we can.
With the whole of my heart, thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Tom Shelton
Organizer
Nancy Shelton Jaffray
Organizer
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