Alder Hey partners with B&M to raise money for new Neonatal Building

The campaign will raise a minimum of £55,000 over a four-week promotional period in-stores nationwide to go towards a new state-of-the-art surgical neonatal unit, which will help keep families together during the most crucial time of their care.

Discount retailer B&M and Procter & Gamble (P&G) are delighted to announce that once again, they’re relaunching their exciting partnership on Wednesday 27^thSeptember 2023 to raise funds to support Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Charity’s Surgical Neonatal Appeal.

The partnership will enable their customers to change the lives of families treated at Alder Hey, simply by buying their P&G everyday cleaning essentials at their local B&M store.

To celebrate the start of their latest campaign, the Wrexham Border B&M Store had a special visitor – little baby Theo. Theo was born prematurely at 27 weeks old at Wrexham Maelor Hospital in July 2022.

Having been transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital, Theo was subsequently diagnosed with sepsis and started deteriorating very quickly. He was moved to the intensive care unit and put on a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine, which eased his difficulties breathing.

Theo was then found to have two inguinal hernias that needed to be operated on. He was transferred to Alder Hey a few days later for an operation to fix his hernia, followed by a second operation after a few weeks. Theo needed to be transferred to Alder Hey as these operations can only be done in a specialised children’s hospital with full paediatric surgery facilities such as Alder Hey.

His second operation at Alder Hey was successful and Theo was discharged just one day later making a full recovery and was able to go back home to his family in Wrexham.

Theo has a very special connection with B&M Stores in Wrexham Border, as his big brother Liam works in the store. To celebrate the launch of the latest fund-raising campaign, Theo, Liam and the entire family joined Alder Hey at the store to thank Alder Hey for saving Theo’s life.

The family were incredibly happy to know that B&M & P&G are once again relaunching this incredible campaign to help raise the awareness of the amazing work that Alder Hey does and to help raise vital funds to help other babies just like Theo across the UK.

Speaking about Alder Hey’s upcoming Surgical Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Theo’s mum Julia said: “Having a new Neonatal Unit would be great as I feel it will help so many families that will find themselves in a similar situation to me and my family. I feel it would make a massive difference as all the care and equipment will be in one place and having features such as family rooms is a bonus, as being a parent to a poorly baby, you want to be with them as much as possible.”

The partnership was formed in summer 2022, to support the charity in its mission to raise vital funds to help make Alder Hey a truly world-class, patient-friendly hospital. Following the success of the previous partnership campaigns, already raising a fantastic total of £110,000 for the charity – the two brands have come together once again in the hope that even more money would be raised towards the project.

This time, they plan to raise even more money, with the proceeds from selected P&G products across cleaning categories sold in B&M stores over four weeks being donated to the charity’s appeal. A 5p donation from every pack sold will go direct to Alder Hey Children’s Charity, with a minimum donation amount of £55,000.

Jen Deeney, Head of Nursing at the Liverpool Neonatal Partnership, said:

“We’ve been recruiting and inducting new staff, who are all rotating across Alder Hey and Liverpool Women’s Hospital and working well within the team. We’re pleased to have increased consulting hours on the existing unit too. We can deliver better care and consistency for our families, focusing on the baby’s wider needs as a newborn as well as their surgical needs.

“What’s great is we’re seeing more babies in the appropriate place for their care…and we’re making consistent improvements as we work towards an exciting new model of care which is going to benefit so many babies and their families.

“We’re so grateful to everyone who has supported the appeal, you are making our vision a reality and will be changing the lives of families who need our care. Thank you so much on behalf of everyone at Alder Hey and the Liverpool Neonatal Partnership.”

In 2019/2020, nearly 150 babies were transferred between Liverpool Women’s Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, with some having to make the journey several times. These transfers were often around the time of surgery when babies are most vulnerable and acutely unwell. The new surgical neonatal unit is based around a Family Integrated Care Model which will provide family accommodation for parents and offer the latest enhanced patient monitoring systems.

This will give neonatal babies the best possible environment to receive the urgent care they need, and most importantly – with their families by their side.

The unit will be the first of its kind in the UK, and the vision is to lead the way for this standard of care. The Appeal will fund the creation of a state-of-the-art Surgical NICU facility with 22 neonatal cots and 18 family rooms, where parents can stay alongside their newborns whilst they receive the expert care they urgently need.

The total cost of the Surgical NICU at Alder Hey will be around £26 million, and Alder Hey Children’s Charity will raise £3 million in support of this. The B&M and P&G partnership has provided vital funds to help achieve this goal. The continued support from B&M customers will ensure the very best for the tiny patients and families who will benefit from this new unit.

Customers will easily be able to locate the products included by simply looking out for the Alder Hey & P&G branded feature bay ends at their local B&M store. The P&G products featured will include some of the biggest brands in health and beauty and cleaning including Fairy, Flash, Febreze, Fairy Non-Bio, Lenor, Ariel, Herbal Essences, Pantene, Oral B, Gillette, Venus, Always, Always Discreet and Pampers.

For each selected Fairy, Flash, Fairy Non-Bio, Pantene, Always, Always Discreet and Pampers product purchased between 27/09/2023 and 24/10/2023, Procter and Gamble UK will donate £0.05 to Alder Hey Children’s Charity. A list of all products included in the donation can be found here.