Donate to help us get Ruairidh to hospital when needed

Hi, I am Ruairidh's mum. This photo is Ru at his most recent visit Victoria Hospital in Kirckaldy this August.

Ru is now 18 months old, but was born with a pretty serious heart condition (severe aortic stenosis). At 3 months old had his first heart surgery. We have been told he will have to have at least 3 more surgeries to replace and fix his valve, but at the moment we are unsure when that will be. Ru is OK at the moment and his doctors want to try and wait for Ru to grow more before his next operation.

However, in the meantime we have to watch him closely for signs of his heart weakening /failure and have been told to take him straight to hospital with any signs of illness (and children get ill a lot!). So far, we have been to hospital over 20 times as instructed by our GP. I have given up work and am now Ru's full time carer, as I am not sure I would trust child care to be as vigilant to watch for any changes in him. We have been told not to mess about with his condition.

Our issue is that we desperately need a car. Getting him to the hospital is either a 1.5 hour bus ride, a £60 taxi, or an ambulance. All of which we have done over the last 18 months. This causes so much stress and anxiety, as we never know when our next hospital visit will be. Plus, from experience, we have to take so much stuff to hospital with us in case of an overnight stay. As we are now living off only one charity salary, we simply are not in a financial situation to sort this ourselves.

We are looking to raise funds to see if we can get a cheap second hand car, plus 2 years running costs (we will hopefully know more in 2-years our status) so we can have the peace of mind to get him to hospital when he needs to go. Knowing that the only fast way to get him seen by a pediatric doctor is by ambulance leaves us feeling very vulnerable, especially when one time that ambulance took 50 minutes to arrive. Also, Ruairidh's cardiology team is in Glasgow and so when Ru does have to have surgery, there is no way we could go by public transport.

I have previously researched into charities and NHS services that could help us with this dilemma, but there is nothing available to us. I have looked into cars on higher purchase, but as I am the only license holder in the household in the family, I am not eligible without a salary. Someone suggested Crowdfunding and so here we are!. We desperately need a family car, but I have run out of ideas on how we may be able to get one.

While the primary purpose of the car would be to ensure we ca get Ruairidh to hospital quickly and safely when needed, it would also be used for general family transport, so this would need to be factored into your decision to donate.

We would be fully transparent with how the money is used. The plan would be to buy a Volvo (or another robust car), for around £3-4K and use the remaining money to run the car and ensure we are able to maintain it for the next 2 years, until I can hopefully start work again.

We would be super grateful if you could donate anything, even the price of a coffee, that could take away some of the constant anxiety of having a poorly child. I guess if we can find 1500 people to buy us a coffee, our situation will be very different. Things seem ok for us on the outside most of the time, but the emotional turmoil of our situation is very very real.

Alternatively, if anyone has a spare car kicking about that they don't need, that would also be welcome!

Thank you in advance.

Laura, Chris and Ruairidh