Bideford Mum Plans Sale to Raise Funds for Children’s Air Ambulance

Bideford mum Janita Barlow is organising a sale of pre-loved toys, clothes and books to raise money for the Children’s Air Ambulance (TCAA) as a thank you for being there when her eight-week-old baby urgently needed specialist treatment to save his life.

Within a few hours of being diagnosed with a serious heart condition, little George was being treated at a hospital over 100 miles away from his home. It took TCAA just 26 minutes to fly him to the specialist cardiac unit at Bristol Royal Children’s Hospital from his local hospital in Barnstaple.

George was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Mitral Regurgitation – the muscles and valve in his heart are weak and without medication he can’t pump blood around his body. He will have to take drugs for the rest of his life to manage his condition but he is now thriving and at 23 months old has just started crawling and saying his first words – one of which was “mumma”.

This obviously delighted Janita who is so grateful to TCAA for getting her son to the urgent medical care he needed so quickly that she decided to hold the sale to raise money for the charity.

She says: “The idea came about as I have an attic full of my boys’ old clothes, toys and books that I had intended to sell on. I just thought it would be nice to combine that with raising some money for the Children’s Air Ambulance. We will always be eternally grateful for the air ambulance helping George in his hour of need and we want to give something back to the charity. You never know what is around the corner for your children as we found out with George. Without the amazing service provided by the Children’s Air Ambulance some youngsters might not get the lifesaving care they need quickly enough – and that doesn’t bear thinking about.”

The sale is being held on Saturday 8 June from 9am to noon at Abbotsham Village Hall. Entry is free.