Hollie fundraiser brings in £1,000
A FUNDRAISING appeal in honour of little Hollie Garrity has almost tripled its £1,000 target in barely a week.
Born with a rare heart condition, the three-year-old from Wallsend died despite the best efforts of the Children’s Heart Unit Fund (CHUF) at the Freeman Hospital.
While the loss of their child has devastated the family, they were determined to give something back to the medics who tried so hard to save her.
Mum Kirsty Stubbs, 29, set up a JustGiving page in memory of the lovely girl they knew as ‘Hollie-bops’ and by yesterday the total had reached £2,890.
In a message to donors left on the page, Kirsty said: “Thank u everyone... we doubled our target in just a few days..amazing xx.”
From the very start of her short life, Hollie’s family knew it was going to be struggle.
Kirsty found out Hollie’s heart had not developed in the right way during pregnancy and she was diagnosed with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA), a condition which means blood flow doesn’t happen as it should.
Hollie had already needed two operations, one when she just five days old, and around a fortnight ago the family got the call she was going to be taken in for the big one they’d been waiting for.
Kirsty, dad Dean Garrity, 29, and nana Alison Hill, 56, were left waiting nervously.
Kirsty said: “After a few hours one of the medical staff came out to tell us that she was unstable and needed to be put on an ECMO machine because she had suffered heart failure and it needed to be kept going.
“The doctors told us there were risks but she was doing really well and we thought she’d only need to be on it for a couple of days because she was progressing every hour.
“On Thursday morning they came to do their normal checks and she wasn’t responding so they took her for a scan and discovered she’d suffered a serious bleed on the brain.
“There was nothing they could do. All I could do was cuddle into her as they turned the machine off.”
Kirsty paid tribute to Hollie, describing her as a “right little character”.
“She was so lovely and had so much life - you just wouldn’t know she had a heart condition if you met her,” she added.
“She was always happy, loved singing and dancing, always laughing, always funny.”
■ To donate, visit www.justgiving. com/crowdfunding/kirsty-stubbs