Our baby girl miraculously survived - now we're trying to help charity Tiny Tickers save others

James and Jodie Thorpe, of Thornton, endured a nightmare Christmas last year after eight day old Grace suffered a cardiac arrest on Boxing day.

It turned out that although Grace seemed perfectly well when she was born, in fact she had a number of undiagnosed heart defects.

Jodie, 33, and James, 35, were frantic with worry as their tiny daughter was rushed from Blackpool Victoria Hospital to Alder Hey, the specialist children's unit in Liverpool.

Little Grace had to have parts of her bowel removed, she suffered a bleed on the brain due to the cardiac arrest and even now, has serious kidney problems.

Yet the family’s Christmas nightmare could have been less traumatic had the heart defects been detected while she was still in the womb, during her 20-week scan.

Jodie says the issue is preventable because of the work of a special charity she only found out about later - and now she is keen to raise both funds and awareness of it.

Tiny Tickers is a charity that provides training for sonographers on how to spot heart defects in babies on 20 week ultrasound scans.

Jodie said: “It was the worst Christmas ever, our baby girl was only a few days old and we thught we were going to lose her.

“We were enjoying Boxing Day and suddenly it all happened so quickly, it was a nightmare.

“If Grace’s heart detects had been spotted before she was born, the medical team would have been ready to treat her as soon as she was born, before she had the cardiac arrest.

“Because her heart stopped, it has left her with lifelong problems. She only has one kidney and the other one only has forty per cent function.

“All that trauma could have been avoided.”

A baby is born with a serious heart condition every two hours in the UK and despite congenital heart disease being one of the biggest killers of infants, only around half of congenital heart defects are picked up during routine prenatal scanning.

Tiny Tickers aims to provide a safety net for the 1,000 babies each year who leave hospital with their heart defects undetected.

By increasing detection rates, it helps improve a baby’s chances of survival and long-term quality of life.

Grace was in hospital from Boxing Day until February this year, and Jodie and James stayed close by, in a facility provided by the charity Ronald mcDonald House.

The couple's routine was thrown completely up in the air as they watched their baby girl fight for life.

Jodie has her own painter and decorator business but has been unable to work this year, while James is a primary school teacher in poulton.

Their other child, 11 year old son Rowan, was looked after by Jodie’s younger sister, 29 year old Jessica, while they were in Liverpool.

Despite the grim prognosis given to little Grace on that terrible Boxing Day, she was saved when a rash on her tummy alerted the medical team to a perforated bowel, which led to an emergency operation which saved her life.

Now, Josie is on the fundraising trail for Tiny Tickers.

She said: “I'm doing a Christmas sky dive next month to raise funds for this charity.

“We haven't confirmed the date yet but we’ll be doing it in Lancaster.

“When the time comes I’ll probably be petried but if I can help prevent other families from going what we wet through, it will be worth it.”

For more information about Tiny Tickers, visit:https://www.tinytickers.org/

To help the fundraising campaign, visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/jodie-thorpe-1730752013815.