A KEYNSHAM mum has written a children’s book to encourage more people to give blood.
The Girl Who Borrowed Stars by Aimee Nicholls is inspired by the experiences of her daughter Adley, who needed multiple transfusions after she was born with all her major organs in her chest.
Adley, an IVF baby, was diagnosed at 17 weeks of pregnancy with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).
This meant she had a hole in her diaphragm that caused organs to push through. They had squashed her lungs, stopping them from developing, and displaced her heart.
Aimee and her husband Alex then faced a critical decision.
“She was given a 50% chance of survival,” said Aimee. “But we decided to go ahead and continue with the pregnancy and give her the best chance.”
At birth, Adley was immediately sedated, ventilated and paralysed so she could undergo surgery.
She then had to battle against various heart, lung and kidney afflictions, including pneumonia, severe pulmonary hypertension, left-ventricular (LV) dysfunction, and acute renal failure. She also developed sepsis.
Due to all of this, she needed numerous blood and platelet transfusions.
Her condition was so unstable that it wasn’t until she was three weeks old that Aimee and Alex were able to hold her for the first time.
But thanks to her treatment at Bristol Children’s Hospital, Adley managed to pull through and now, at the age of one year and nine months, she is thriving.
Aimee said: “She’s doing amazing now.
“When they operated and moved the organs back, they couldn’t all get put into the right places so everything is a little bit everywhere.
“Her heart remains displaced and she’s at risk of scoliosis as she gets older due to the pressure from the organs on her spine.
“She’s respiratory vulnerable but is an absolute miracle. She makes us all so happy.”
Adley doesn’t attend nursery due to the risks to her health, but she does receive physio and is able to walk and run.
Now Aimee is hoping her independently published book will encourage more people to donate the blood without which children like Adley wouldn’t survive.
The Girl Who Borrowed Stars tells the story of a little girl who receives life-saving blood transfusions – each one a borrowed star that fills her dreams with magic, adventure and hope.
It is described as a “gentle, inspiring tale that reminds us all that even the smallest act of kindness can light up the world.”
Aimee said the aim of the book is to spread the conversation around blood donation and to inspire hope and a sense of magic in those needing the transfusions themselves.
“We don’t want our children to see them as something scary,” she said.
“We’ve put several copies in the children’s hospital so far and are going to continue to donate more whenever any profits from the book come in.”
Aimee previously wrote a book called Leo’s Heart, about her son Leo, who needed open-heart surgery as a newborn baby. She wrote it for his classmates when he began attending Chandag Infants School to help them understand his circumstances.
The Girl who Borrowed Stars, illustrated by Keynsham-based Katie Cox, is available from Amazon.
Pictured below, Aimee Nicholls reads to her daughter Adley from her children’s book
