It’s not until you’re in that position you realise just how important CHAS is ... to the whole family
Mum tells how precious time spent at Robin House has helped not just her boys, but all her loved ones
he wanted – and he did.
“He was a character and so determined. He was ventilated so many times. Whenever he took an infection, he’d be drowning in the fluid in his lungs.
“We lost count of how many times he was in intensive care. While other children around him were heavily sedated to stop them pulling their tubes out, Cameron would sit in intensive care, painting and playing musical instruments. He couldn’t tell you, but he knew the tubes were there to help him. We were told so many times to prepare ourselves, but he always bounced back.”
Debbie was pregnant with her second daughter, Jasmine, when the Glasgow family were introduced to Robin House in Balloch and Jasmine was six weeks old when they had their first residential stay.
“I was reluctant at first. You hear the word ‘hospice’ and you think of sadness and death,” remembers
Debbie.
“The minute you walk through the door, any thoughts you had of it are totally reversed. There’s laughter, kids running about, and so much happiness. It was a godsend for all of us – the whole family.
“It was great to recharge your batteries for a couple of days. And Cameron loved the sensory room and the hydrotherapy pool.”
Although he enjoyed a happy summer in 2008, Cameron’s health deteriorated the following winter and he was again hooked up to a ventilator in Glasgow Children’s Hospital.
Debbie was staying at the nearby Ronald McDonald House when she received a call in the night to report that he had taken a turn for the worse.
When high frequency oscillatory ventilation failed to improve his condition and Cameron returned to a normal ventilator, doctors warned his parents that there was a chance he might not make it.
“When you have got a child who is not well, you want to keep them forever, for selfish reasons, maybe,” said Debbie.
“But we decided the next day we couldn’t keep him any longer. The ventilator was keeping him alive.”
It was then, on May 7, 2009, that little fighter Cameron passed away in his mum’s arms. “He exceeded all expectations,” said Debbie.
“They didn’t think he would