I was sat at home drinking a cup of tea, waiting for the girls to come home from school . Busy Evening lay ahead as we had Eloise's Subject Evening ( apparently I am wrong when I call this event parents evening! ) Then a train to catch to London, as we needed to be at Gosh for 9am Wednesday I booked a hotel . Anyway my mobile rang, it was R Eloise's donors mum, she'd never rang me before. She sounded flustered and apologised for ringing me. She was going to feature in a Channel 4 news piece that evening because of the media interest in the 6 day old baby who became Britain's youngest organ donor. The call was to "warn" me that they'd be showing Z's picture, R wanted to make sure Eloise and I were ok. We chatted and I reassured her we'd be fine. The news would be on at 7pm so I asked Leah to record it as I knew we'd be travelling on the train then.
After a very good subject evening for Eloise and a couple of hours travelling we settled into our hotel room and feasted on an M&S picnic . I logged onto the wifi and went straight to Channel 4 catch up. There it was the news piece and straight away I saw a picture of a very cute baby, for the first time I was seeing Z . Eloise and I sat there listening to the news, of course for Eloise this was the first time she'd seen R . I think she was intrigued to see Z and R but not worried or upset. Just very level headed about it, in true Eloise style.
I've been asked how it felt to see Z's picture for the first time, I wasn't upset or full of emotion. I wonder what the correct response should be and whether not feeling much is odd ? It's not really something many of us ever encounter, I can't gage how I feel on many people's experiences , also we're all unique . It's an odd situation isn't it, looking at a baby knowing her heart is beating inside your baby. Knowing she's the reason your child is alive and her courageous family of course. Don't get me wrong it was lovely to see a picture. I guess in my mind I had an image of this toddler who saved my child's life. This new image was more vivid, real and replaced my fuzzy idea of what Z looked like. She's a very cute little girl and it's lovely to see her smile.
For me I just felt so proud of R she came across so well and I'm sure she moved and inspired many people with her words. I'm happy that you've seen her now and heard her side of our very special story that sadly only came about after tragedy. I'm glad she never regretted her decision to donate her baby's organs and that she's been comforted knowing two children's lives were saved.
Then on Sunday the story was in the Sunday Telegraph, move moving words from R, you cannot fail to admire this woman's strength . A true hero, our hero. Thank you will never be enough but it's a start. I know how lucky I am to know R , things could have been so different for me. Yet still now Eloise and I are this lady's priority she was worried about us seeing Z's picture but we're so happy she feels ready to share the image of her beautiful little girl. Z and her brave mummy not only saved Eloise's life and the little girl who received her liver but by sharing her story others will have been encouraged to sign up and that potentially means more lives saved.
Yesterday it was my turn to warn R that I was publicly going to post a video of Eloise on Heart Transplant Families UK public page. F a photographic media student filmed Eloise over a couple of days for a website on organ donation he was doing for his dissertation. He also filmed our lovely friend and fellow superhuman K . The results are amazing , really fantastic films. I hope they encourage people to talk about organ donation and sign up ! This morning I woke up to a lovely email from R telling me what a gorgeous and brave daughter I have. I'm touched xxxx
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