I’m Lucy, Polly Blossom’s Mum.

Polly is 5 years old, she is full of life, funny, cheeky, smart, kind, inquisitive, and is guaranteed to make you smile upon meeting her. Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Polly will know this, you might get a “hi mate” from her when we’ve been on a walk over the park.

She also has Down Syndrome, a lot of you will know that I found that out during pregnancy.

At 3 months old Polly had open heart surgery to repair a complete AVSD, this was successful and left just a small leak in her valve. As she has grown this has been managed well. The first year of her life we spent the first 4 months living in hospital. As a thank you to GOSH we raised over £6,700 the following year with the great help from many of you.

Fast forward to today, Polly has been in hospital for the last 3 weeks. She went in with a suspected chest infection which needed oxygen, her oxygen levels never truly picked up where they should have been. We got discharged after 6 days and was home for one night when she took a turn for the worst.

Polly became really poorly needing a high amount of oxygen and was in and out of consciousness. Instead of getting better in hospital she rapidly declined and we got transferred to the Royal London Hospital where she is currently in critical care.

She is heavily sedated on a ventilator, it’s very up and down and we are still not entirely sure or have all the answers as to what is wrong with her. It looks like the next few weeks will be spent in hospital, making a total of 6 weeks if not more. Hopefully it isn’t longer and Polly continues to fight with everything her little body has to offer.

During this time we have juggled as a family to do everything we can, unfortunately we can’t all be together every day because we have our little blessing & Polly’s brother, Sonny who is just 7 months old. Dom, Polly’s Dad, has spent the last month sleeping next to her every single night and now he is living in accommodation while Polly spends time in ICU, spending all day by her bedside. While I am at home taking care of Sonny while we both have the flu.

When Polly is better, I would love nothing more than a family trip, the four of us just living our life, and taking in every moment that we have been blessed with, together. Dominic carries the financial load of the family on his shoulders, as I quit my photography business after 13 years to be there for both my children, and being Polly's main caregiver it was becoming more difficult to juggle a business alongside family life. I would love to take some of that burden off Dom’s shoulders, just in a small way to ask for this.

Polly is a huge Disney fan, she loves so many Disney films and characters and I may of kind of told her when you’re better we could go Disneyland. She has no idea what that even mean's or that it exists, but I can only imagine her face when she can see it! When you see your child so sick, and very touch and go, you would give them anything in the universe for them to feel good, to see them smile again and make them happy.

I am not asking for a huge amount and I have no idea when it’s possible for us to go, but this is a pot. A start, so whatever you can give, is hugely appreciated. It will go to our future Disneyland trip to see our little girl smile again.

I keep dreaming about the day I see a smile on her face again, I hope that is really soon.

thank you for your continued support and outpour of love for Polly. I am honoured to be her Mum, she has touched so many people in 5 years and she has so much more to give!!

keep fighting Polly, we know just how strong you are ❤️