Chloe Stephens

I'm going the distance for sick kids this August!

At the end of June, we experienced our first trip to emergency after Alby had accidentally tipped a boiling hot tea on his face, chest and arm. He was treated in the ED, things looked okay, and we were told to come back 3 days later for a review. The night before the review appointment, things looked much worse. His eye and face looked red, swollen and infected. We were truly terrified and incredibly worried for him. We were unsure if his skin would scar, how long his recovery would be, if the infection caused any damage to his eyesight, would he be permanently affected? Would he be able to see out of that eye? We arrived the next morning for the appointment, the nurses and doctors took one look at him and told us he would need to go into theatre to go under for them to clean him up. He would also then need IV antibiotics to help his body fight the infection - which we later found out was cellulitis (very common in burns). 

We spent the next 3 nights in hospital with our poor baby, he looked like the phantom of the opera with all his bandages. He had a few hoops to jump through, but eventually he was cleared to go home on oral antibiotics. One hell of a couple of weeks, absolutely traumatising to see our baby in that way.

We could not have gotten through without the support from the nurses, doctors, volunteers and orthopaedic surgeons at The Children’s Hospital. I don’t know where we’d be without them. I don’t know what would have happened if they didn’t treat our baby when they did and give him the level of care that they did. I’ll be truly forever grateful for our access to quality healthcare.

In an effort to give back, I’ve signed up for the 2023 42k Your Way challenge to raise money for the Children’s Hospital Foundation. I’ll be walking and running a total of 42K in August and would love your support if you’re able to. Whether that’s sharing this page, donating $$, or by walking alongside me. You’ll be helping thousands of sick kids and their families.

Thank you so much for your generosity, it means a lot!