Alder Hey reaches £3M appeal target for new Surgical Neonatal Intensive Care Unit 

Alder Hey Children’s Charity has met it’s £3 million appeal target for a new Surgical Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Alder Hey.

As well as generous donations from countless fundraisers over the last 2 years, long-term supporters of Alder Hey, David and Maureen Speakman made an incredible pledge of £586,450 at the recent Alder Hey Children’s Charity and LFC Foundation Gala Ball, held in October 2023, closing the neonatal appeal.

The Appeal, which was launched in 2021 by Liverpool FC legend Jamie Carragher, aimed to raise £3 million for a brand-new state of the art facility on the site of the children’s hospital. The unit will feature 22 neonatal cots and 18 individual family rooms where parents can be alongside their poorly new-borns whilst they’re receiving expert care.

As the first of its kind in the UK the unit will address a shared concern between Liverpool Women’s and Alder Hey that babies who need specialist surgery currently have to be transferred to Alder Hey to get the specialist surgical care they need and are then transferred back to Liverpool Women’s Hospital to continue their specialist neonatal care, sometimes several times.

The £3 million raised from the Appeal will help the children’s charity to provide ‘over and above’ enhancements and equipment for both the clinical space and family areas, elevating the new Surgical NICU from a facility that provides families with a safe and secure environment for their new-borns, to a truly world-class facility.

The Speakman’s donation specifically will go towards 3 of the parent rooms and 13 special incubators.

David Speakman said:

“My family and I are delighted to have been able to support the hospital’s Neonatal appeal. As parents of a premature baby, we remember the stress and worry only too well, and to be able to contribute to help more babies make the best possible start in life, is our absolute pleasure.”

One family who will benefit from the new Surgical NICU will be Natalie’s from St Helen’s. Their son Tommy was born at just 26 weeks gestation in 2022 at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and had to be transferred to Alder Hey at just a few days old following a spontaneous intestinal perforation.

A hole had developed in his bowel. This operation can only be done in a specialised children’s hospital with full paediatric surgery facilities such as Alder Hey, so he was transferred for surgery, before returning to Liverpool Women’s Hospital to recover before going home.

Small pre-term babies need to be cared for at a nationally designated neonatal intensive care unit for their ongoing medical and surgical needs to be met. Until the new Surgical NICU is built at Alder Hey, this means that babies needing full intensive care have to be transferred back to the Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

Tommy’s mum Natallie said:

“I want to say a big thank you to the Speakman’s and everyone who donated. The new unit will be incredible, and the enhancements sound amazing, truly making it a home for home for families like ours.”

Fiona Ashcroft, CEO Alder Hey Children’s Charity, said:

“We really are overwhelmed by the generosity of the public. The funding will help turn the unit in to something really special for some of our most vulnerable patients and their families.”

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