Miracles do happen
Obanites rally to support family of baby born the size of a bag of sugar
WHEN the community of Oban heard the baby of a popular Oban couple had been born more than three months early, they raised almost £7,000 to help the couple.
Outpourings of support for Ashton, the baby of Jemma Campbell and Andy Matthews have been ‘overwhelming’ and are allowing the family to spend all the time they need with their newborn, who was born weighing only 2lbs.
Mum Jemma, who works at Atlantis Community Leisure Centre told The Oban Times: ‘Ashton is having good days and bad days in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It’s what we have been told to expect for the next few months as he came 14 weeks early.
‘Consultants have told us to aim for having him back home on his due date of March 21. ‘I can’t begin to tell you how touched and overwhelmed Andy and I have been to see the community come together in support for our little miracle baby.
‘It’s taken a huge amount of financial stress off our minds and we can shine our main focus on getting our little boy home now. We were thinking Andy [who works at Oban Electrics] would have to return to work in the New Year but neither of us wanted to be that far apart at a time like this. But maybe now it could be different for the three of us.
‘It’s just so lovely to see how a small town comes together and supports a family with so much generosity especially around Christmas time.
‘I pretty much cried for the few days after I saw that my best friend Ashley [ Bichard] had set up the Justgiving page for us.
‘I couldn’t read all the lovely messages and pledges through my tears. It’s a tough time and all we can hope for is for our little boy to come home and start our family life in Oban.
‘We really can’t thank everyone enough for this support for Ashton. He’s a very well thought of boy in the town already.
‘Normally I would be embarrassed to receive money for anything from anyone but as a parent now you have to learn to accept these kind offerings - as it’s for your child.’
But it wasn’t just money that the couple were offered, as Jemma explains: ‘A family friend has kindly given us a set of keys to her flat near by, which is a enormous support as I am now being discharged from hospital.’
On the fundraising Justgiving page, Ashley Bichard’s said: ‘ We’re raising £7,000 to transport mummy and daddy to visit baby Ashton because he came into the world three months early.
‘He is a fighter and doing well in the NICU in the Princess Royal [in Glasgow], but this is far away from home.
‘We all wish there was something we could do to help, so we have set up this page to raise funds to take some of the financial pressure from mummy and daddy.
‘ We all want to help make this time a little easier, just as they would do for us. At this time of year it makes it all the more important to care and look out for one another and make their first Christmas as a family as stress free as it can be in these circumstances.’
Support on the page has come from all over the world, including from many parents who have had similar experiences over the years, travelling to and from city hospitals and the huge burden of cost this can place on families.