Avril Gowman, Senior Nurse for the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales
Claire O’brien,
Angela Hughes, Acting Assistant Director of Patient Experience, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board,
Cath Heath Director of Nursing, Children and Women’s Clinical Board
Michael O’brien
Sadly, in 2012 Dylan Michael James O’brien died of an undiagnosed metabolic condition. The Dylan O’brien Foundation was set up in his memory by his parents Michael and Claire to raise awareness and support for children’ with metabolic and genetic diseases and their families.
The Foundation has been busy raising money to purchase sleep apnoea machines for the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales.
Michael and Claire O’brien recently visited the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales to hand over six machines for use on the wards.
Michael, from Mountain Ash said: “Our son Dylan died in 2012 and we wanted to do something positive out of a negative situation, so we took it upon ourselves to set up The Dylan O’brien Foundation in his memory.
“The aim of the Foundation is to help families who have the same problems that we had with our child, which is genetic disorders and metabolic diseases.
“We didn’t want Dylan to die in vain. We wanted something positive to come out of the negative.
“We are raising money to help children in the local community by providing sleep apnoea machines for use. Dylan inspired us to do this, we wouldn’t have wanted us to wallow in self pity, he would want something constructive to come out of his death.”
To raise money last year, Claire shaved her hair off and walked up Pen y Fan on Dylan’s anniversary. This year she’ll be walking up Snowdon in his memory.
Claire said: “We have donated 10 machines to the Noah’s Ark Children’s hospital and there are six donated for use in the local community.
“It is so important for us to do this, we feel there is a need for people to have these machines in case they need them.
“It’s such a small amount of money to spend on a machine that could save a child’s life.
“These machines give parents a warning, alerting them to the fact that their child has stopped breathing. This gives the parents a chance to perform CPR. This can be the difference between life and death.
“I want to say thank you to the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales and to the public for their support, in helping us to provide these machines to help save a child’s life.”
Cath Heath, Director of Nursing at the Noah’s Ark Children for Wales said: “I’d like to thank Mr and Mrs O’brien for continuing to fundraise for sleep apnoea machines for the children’s hospital.
“These machines provide reassurance and greater peace of mind for parents of children suffering from metabolic and genetic conditions that make them susceptible to sleep apnoea.”
To find out more visit www.thedylanobrienfoundation.com
