A three-year-old girl from County Durham who had a life-saving heart transplant after spending more than a year in hospital has featured in a TV appeal on behalf of the charity which helped her and her family.
The story of three-year-old Bea Archbold and her family from Burnopfield, near Stanley, was featured in the BBC Lifeline Appeal, which first aired on Sunday (May 26).
Presented by broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, the programme featured Bea, three, and her family who are being helped by the Rainbow Trust, a charity which supports children with life-threatening or terminal illnesses and their families.
When Bea was just 15 months old, she was rushed to hospital with heart failure – and remained there for 14 months attached to a mechanical heart which kept her alive while doctors looked for a donor.
Her mum Cheryl Adamson and dad Terry Archbold remained at the hospital day and night which took a toll on their other, older daughter Eliza.
Coping with the very real fear that Bea might die, separated from Eliza and all this on top of a family tragedy in 2018 when their baby daughter Isabel died of an unrelated heart condition when Eliza was eight took its toll.
Rainbow Trust pairs each family with an expert Family Support Worker who provides practical and emotional support to families caring for a seriously ill chld at home, in hospital and in the community whenever they need it, for as long as is needed.
Bea's family has been supported with everything from collecting Eliza from school, taking her to hospital and crucially putting Bea to bed in hospital so Cheryl could spend time with Eliza.
For the Archbold family, the support has been a lifeline.
They said: “Monica (their Rainbow Trust Family Support Worker) has been invaluable. She was able to come into the hospital and the bond she has built with Bea was incredible.
“She is like family. Unless you have been in that environment you cannot explain to someone what it’s like. You’re living every day with the reality that your child might die. Monica understands this.”
Zillah Bingley, chief executive of Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, added:
“We are incredibly grateful to the BBC for featuring Rainbow Trust in this appeal, to Gyles for presenting it and of course to our extremely generous match funder.
“I urge you to watch and support the appeal if you can. Your gift really will make a vital difference to families whose lives are shattered as they struggle to cope with the possibility that their child might die.
Mr Brandreth also praised the campaign and its critical support for families with sick children.
He said: “I am honoured to be backing this appeal. I know just how vital Rainbow Trust’s Family Support Workers are in helping families cope.
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“The exhaustion, stress and the relentlessness of serious childhood illness cannot be underestimated and the simplest thing of having access to a Family Support Worker to help is invaluable.
"By providing practical and emotional support and giving your family time together, to spend with your other children, to breathe, or to sleep - because no one sleeps well beside a child’s bed in hospital - they help to alleviate the intense toll on the whole family.”
The film is available on BBC iPlayer until 10am on June 16 and will be repeated on BBC Two on Friday (May 31) at 08.50am.
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