Heart Heroes

At Wishy, we want to understand more about what charities can offer and how we and the public can support them. We sat down with Kelly at Heart Heroes to find out more about how they can offer positive support to children and families with heart conditions.

What are Heart Heroes?

Heart Heroes support families of children living with congenital heart disease and heart problems. Our goal is for children and their siblings to be included in all our events, along with parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles and any other close family. We are here to help all children within the South West living with Heart Conditions providing physical and emotional support. We have already achieved a tremendous amount, supporting many families and their children by working closely with the Bristol Children’s Hospital Cardiac team and The CHD Network Southwest.

How do you support families?

When a diagnosis of a heart condition is first made people often feel alone and need information, support and most importantly hope…. hope that there can still be normality in their lives. We have created a book of Hope. It is full of information and support which can be a source of comfort and support for those initial stages.

We also offer the following:

• Sensory Boxes – these are ‘gift baskets’ sent out to our families with very young children. They are filled with a selection of items to stimulate all the senses, from ‘tactile books’ to feathers, balloons and treats; all of which are designed to enable the child to explore the world around them using their senses.
• Heart Child Paint-Along – over Zoom, a professional artist holds a workshop on how to create your very own masterpieces at home. We send out all the materials required to ensure that every child can take part, and it encourages children to be creative in a fun and engaging way.
• Movie Afternoons – in these, we send out a ‘treat box’ filled with all kinds of goodies, from popcorn to sweets and chocolate. The families can then watch a streamed film over a Zoom call ‘together’ while enjoying their treats.
• Patient Folders for Cardiac Wards – these are designed for recently-diagnosed families and contain everything they need to know about the illnesses, the hospitals, and our charity, including advice and how we can help.
• Preparing for Meetups – while no physical meetups are taking place at the moment, we are still busy organising events and ensuring that our ‘hubs’ are poised to go as soon as we are able to begin again.

During the pandemic we have sent out easter eggs to all 476 families that we support.

We also offer mental health support groups and stress management courses which provide tips for coping.

Why was Heart Heroes created?

Kelly first became aware of the effects of heart conditions on families when her own family experienced a tragic loss of a child with a heart condition. This inspired Kelly and upon leaving school aged 16, she trained in childcare. She then went on to a charity supporting 16–24-year-olds with heart conditions. From this, Kelly went on to create Heart Heroes.

How has Heart Heroes grown?

Heart Heroes has grown massively over the 2 years it has been running. We never turn a family away but ultimately; we only have the funding that we have and that does not always stretch as well as we need it to. We have 5 trustee and 18 volunteers who work in various roles from admin to events and everything in between. We hope to lift our current area to offer support in more districts in England.

What has been your biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge has always been meeting the demand for support. Heart Heroes currently supports over 470 families but there are over 6500 families in the South West of England alone that have heart conditions that would benefit from the support of Heart Heroes.

What are you proud of?

We are proud of everything we do, and we appreciate the feedback from families and knowing we are making a difference.

Also, we have just made an exciting new investment – the Children’s Cardiac Dolphin Ward will receive a ‘giant iPad’ from us: it is an interactive display, made by Sharp, and is on a child-friendly wooden stand with smooth corners and wheels so that it can have the maximum impact possible by reaching children all over the ward. It comes complete with lots of features that we hope will be both fun and useful for the children, such as games, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, puzzles, colouring apps, and more.

The device will prove invaluable in breaking up the monotony of being in a hospital, and we hope it will enable children to enjoy activities together and perhaps provide some educational value too. Its use is varied and flexible, hence why we believe it is a good investment that will remain effective for years to come.

What does the future look like for Heart Heroes?

Our future plans are to create Heart Heroes Hubs across the South West enabling us to support more families who have children living with heart conditions. We would also like to be able to employ staff who can also help achieve everything Heart Heroes is about. We rely on the generosity of our supporters to fund our work. Most of our income comes from either individual who kindly raises money on our behalf, or from trusts/grant providers funding specific projects. We pride ourselves on the transparency, honesty and respectfulness of our fundraising. We are members of the fundraising. As a result of a flood of positive statistics and promises in the news recently, the consensus seems to be that the world is on the up. Amidst the hope, it is easy to forget that, although one major global issue is near to being behind us, lots of issues remain: children with congenital heart diseases are still battling valiantly with their illnesses, and their parents still soldier on through a swarm of Doctor’s appointments, operations, and the daily concern for their child’s health.

How can we help?

We hope you can see that your donations go to great causes that have direct and tangible impacts on the lives of those children affected by heart conditions. Every bit of help, big or small, means that the suffering endured by the children and their parents is lessened through projects like these, enabling the children to play and have fun, as all children should.