We are excited to announce that the charity we have chosen to support this year is… Mater Little Miracles! One in every 7 Queenslanders are born at the Mater Mothers’ Hospital and on any given night the Neonatal Critical Care Unit looks after up to 79 babies, some born as early as 24 weeks and weighing less than a bottle of water; too small or too sick to go home. These little babies need our help!
Our donations throughout this year will go towards funding the Little Miracles following main goals:
1. Australia’s first 24/7 pregnancy assessment centre – for expecting mothers with concerns in early pregnancy (such as lack of heartbeat or possible miscarriage)
2. The purchase of TGA approved scales – as mothers of an unhealthy weight range can increase the chance of gestational diabetes, hypertension, delivery problems and the chance of preterm or stillbirth
3. Clinical research:
a. Monitoring movement in high risk babies for the first 3 months to detect developmental issues
b. Magnesium Sulphate Therapy in preterm babies, hoping to reduce cerebral palsy and other neurological issues
c. Reduce diabetes being transferred from mother to baby
d. Improve ways to induce labour
e. Reduce the incidence of stillbirth
As you can imagine, a breakthrough in any of the above areas now or in the future would have such a positive impact on the lives of so many babies, parents and families within our community.
How we plan to help
We have already held one charity morning tea for MLM and we are getting ready to put our walking shoes on to participate in the first Mater Little Miracles 5k Walk for the year, to be held on Sunday 20 March. We will be putting together an Altitude Team to raise money and awareness and you can do the same, simply click here to read more about getting involved with this walk.
This year, our aim is to reach $1,500 of donations and you are able to help us reach this goal by making a donation through our MyCause page by following this link. We look forward to sharing updates with you throughout the year on all of our fundraising efforts and keeping you up to date with our goal tracking!