How we support the NHS with equipment
Inspiring hope and enabling Heart Heroes to reach their potential.
Inspiring hope and enabling Heart Heroes to reach their potential.
To date, Chuf has donated over ten million pounds to support the Children’s Heart Unit at the Freeman Hospital and the many other hospitals providing cardiac care throughout the North East.
Chuf understands that the NHS, whilst providing expert medical and surgical care, can’t possibly provide all that one would want for a sick child in hospital to make the stay for them and their family more bearable, nor can it always provide the most up to date equipment necessary to ensure that the care is amongst the best in the world. Chuf raises money to fill this gap and funds large and small pieces of equipment.
As our partnership with the North East and North Cumbria Congenital Heart Disease Network continues to grow. We are thrilled to have supported the expansion of clinical education.
Meet “Nelle” the state-of-the-art robotic revolutionising paediatric medicine in the North East and Cumbria.
SimBaby, an advanced simulator designed to help healthcare providers effectively recognize and respond to critically ill paediatric patients, has arrived in the region, thanks to Chuf and our amazing supporters. The SimBaby simulator looks and acts like a 9-month-old paediatric heart patient and provides highly realistic responses that meet specific learning objectives around initial assessment and treatment. Controlled by a trained educator, the new technology can simulate real life scenarios, allowing healthcare professionals to work effectively as a team to deal with life-threatening situations.
This clever piece of kit was largely funded by a donation from Chuf supporter Paige Jones, who raised over £23,000 as part of her 21k for 2021 fundraising challenge in memory of her cousin Nelle. Chuf has named the SimBaby “Nelle” as a lasting tribute and a thank you to Paige who worked tirelessly hosting fundraising events, organising walks, marathons and bake sales in order to reach her target.
Nelle will enhance the education programme across the region for all healthcare professionals, enabling them to confidently manage the care of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) and heart dysfunction, ensuring a safe pathway of high-quality care within the North East and North Cumbria.
Babies are being discharged home with a home monitoring programme, which includes daily monitoring of their oxygen levels. Handheld pulse oximeters allow close monitoring of saturation levels whilst remotely supporting parents and families in their own homes.
This equipment has proved invaluable in providing reassurances to both parents and the cardiac team in detecting subtle changes in condition, which may require the child to be admitted to hospital and prevent further deterioration. It allows freedom of mobility on a day-to-day basis allowing the children to leave the ward with their parents or nursing staff without cumbersome equipment.
Each monitor costs £550 and to date Chuf have funded 19 monitors.
Babies born with complex cardiac conditions, such as hypo-plastic left heart syndrome, are surviving longer due to successful management of their condition and this has resulted in more babies being discharged home. As part of this management, babies are monitored through the vulnerable babies programme undertaken by the children’s cardiac nurse specialists.
Having scales at home means families are able to detect subtle changes in their baby’s condition which allows for remote guidance and advice which provides assurances to both the parents and cardiac nurse specialist team.
This equipment has proved invaluable in the care of many of our Heart Heroes babies at home, Chuf have recently funded 8 sets of scales at a cost of £2,500
The Accuvein has been trialed in Clinic E and on Ward 23 and it has been found to make identifying suitable veins for cannulation and venepuncture more accurate. It also provided distraction for patients during the procedure.
The Accuvein was funded by Chuf at a cost of £4465.00 and has significantly decreased the time spent taking vital blood samples, which in turn has decreased the distress for both the child and their loved ones.
An additional Accuvein has been purchased for the Heart Unit from funds donated by one of our wonderful supporters.
Chuf has funded a pain and anxiety distraction system, known as a 3D-V-Pod, to aid with distraction techniques for children during uncomfortable or scary procedures at Freeman Hospital.
Costing over £25,000, the V-Pod sensory unit consists of a 50-inch mobile 3D TV system, specialist software and four pairs of 3D Glasses Systems. The system is a fun, interactive and crucial piece of equipment, enabling children and their families to have an enhanced hospital experience.
Charlotte Campbell, Director of Fundraising and Operations at Chuf, said: “Being admitted to hospital at any age can be a scary and unsettling experience, and for children the hospital environment can cause anxiety and trauma.
“The V-Pod system is a fantastic piece of equipment which helps distract children from unsettling scenarios, whether it’s a general health check-up, changing of dressings, taking blood and everything in between. The interactive system is for children and their families to enjoy in clinic, Ward 23 (the Children’s Heart Unit), HDU and PICU.”
Such participatory play between staff, children and parents encourages the child to cope with any negative feelings, fear and pain, making the experience less traumatic.
Charlotte added: “Chuf raises vital funds to support children who are born with or develop heart conditions and their families. By funding such an amazing piece of equipment, Chuf has helped make a huge difference to so many lives with the help of fundraisers across the region.”
Chuf has funded 5 brand new Vapotherms at a cost of £28,050.00.
Vapotherms are a non-invasive high-flow respiratory support system used for treatment of respiratory failure and also cardiac failure as they help reduce the workload of the heart. They use a mixture of oxygen and air to deliver a set concentration via nasal cannula.
The Vapotherms have a battery and also portable air and oxygen so the children using them can be mobile, rather than restricted to their bed for the duration of their therapy.
Being mobile around the ward and the hospital allows crucial time in the playroom and also the outside play area. This encourages play and development and can dramatically transform and enhance the child’s comfort and quality of life during their stay in hospital.
In November 2019 Chuf funded a recliner chair for the Children’s Heart Unit at a cost of £957.00. The chair proved to be so successful that Chuf have gone on to fund 2 more electronic recliner chairs for the Heart Unit.
Babies who require cardiac surgery early in their lives often need to spend prolonged periods of time in hospital. These early months are critical for the gross motor development of the child to enable them to gain the strength and skills to enable them to roll, sit, crawl and stand. ‘Tummy Time’ is widely recognised as a key factor for children in developing to develop trunk strength to enable them to progress through the developmental milestones.
For children in hospital for long periods post cardiac surgery or waiting for a heart transplant ( who may also have a tracheostomy and be attached to a ventilator) conducting tummy time is a challenge and at best can only be done in a cot with the parent at the cot side which can be distressing for both baby and parent.
A recliner chair enables the parent to lie on the chair reclined and have baby lie on their chest as they would at home. This gives baby the comfort of closeness to their parent, not only promoting normal development but nurturing the bond of baby and parent.
A small proportion of children require blood thinning medication following surgical intervention or procedures, to prevent life threatening clot formation. Daily testing of the medication’s effect is imperative in monitoring levels and to dictate dosage.
Using a battery-operated home monitoring machine allows the child to be at home and eliminates excess hospital visits and unnecessary anxiety for the child and family. To date Chuf have funded 40 of these machines at a cost of £14,800.00
Chuf funded 6 patient trolleys for PICU at a cost of £600.00 each.
The trolleys were chosen to improve storage and enhance the space for those patients that are in high dependency for a long time.
The lovely bright colours also help to make the environment aesthetically pleasing as we try to maintain a family and child friendly area for our patients.
Pioneering surgeons are embracing new organ preservation technology, the OCS™ HEART (Organ Care System) and Chuf has been able to support the arrival of this innovative, ‘game-changing’ technology to Newcastle and have been funding this equipment since 2016.
The OCS is designed to help:
The system enables a donor heart to be maintained in optimum condition during long bypass times required for transplant and resuscitation of the heart before deciding if suitable from non DCD donors.
It also enables a donor heart to be maintained at normal temperatures and perfused after donation and before implant. This has the advantage that more organs are potentially able to be considered for transplant and the transplant can be undertaken in the daytime making it safer. The system has been used to successfully transplant adult heart patients affected by congenital heart disease. In addition the OCS system has been used to successfully transplant paediatric heart patients that can receive an adult sized heart.
Due to this system being prime pumped by Chuf, the NHS have recognised the importance of this technology and have taken over funding for DCD donor hearts.
Chuf has funded two state of the art Ultrasound machines costing £61,000. The 2 new ultrasound devices are among the best available on the market. Their improved image quality will help the team at the Freeman Hospital to reduce complications during the procedure of obtaining vascular access in their smallest cardiac patients. They will help to place nerve blocks in the chest wall of children undergoing cardiac and thoracic procedures, and thus reducing their postoperative pain. They will also open the door to new areas of research, for example, investigating the need of preoperative fasting in our youngest patients by examining the stomach content with ultrasound.
Chuf has funded 13 state of the art ECHO Machines for Freeman Hospital, South Tees Hospital, James Cook Hospital, Sunderland Royal Hospital and North Tyneside Hospital at a cost of £701,000. They are in service across all the clinical areas and providing high spec diagnostic information for the doctors and surgeons to plan the best treatment for our Heart Heroes.
An echocardiogram, or “ECHO”, is a scan used to look at the heart and nearby blood vessels. It’s a type of ultrasound scan, which means a small probe is used to send out high-frequency sound waves that create echoes when they bounce off different parts of the body. Use of ECHO machines outside of the main cardiac centre has many benefits to the peripheral hospitals.
Babies and children including newly born babies in maternity units are diagnosed more accurately, locally and within a shorter time frame. Wireless Echo images can be sent very quickly to the regional Centre for quicker diagnosis without the need for parents to travel around the region with poorly babies, thus reducing pressure on main cardiac centres. This reduces waiting times and enhances survival rates of children born with heart conditions, in both the regional centre and at the outlying units. Parents will feel confident that their child has been provided the most efficient care available in their local area. Diagnosis is a stressful period for all parents, we believe that early diagnosis helps relieve stress levels and the need for ongoing psychological support.
Chuf has funded the printing of 3D heart models since 2015 at a cost of £59,000.
More recently Chuf have part funded, alongside Newcastle Hospitals Charity, a 3D imaging workstation with software to enable the team at the Freeman to create virtual heart models to aid their discussions in surgical meetings and plan complex surgical procedures, this also means the team now have a dedicateed workstation is paediatric cardiology.
This equipment also has great potential in training junior doctors and surgeons and has great education value for the patient and their family and other healthcare professionals involved in the care.
Chuf funded the purchase of three additional Chairbeds for the heart unit. The chairbeds provide increased accommodation for one parent staying with their child on the open ward area. Many of the parents visiting the Children’s Heart Unit are reluctant to leave their children over night and in order to make their stay a little more comfortable, Chuf has funded chairbeds to enable to them to sleep next to the bed of their little one.
Each bed costs approximately £1000 and is a vital lifeline to parents staying on the ward overnight.
Children's Heart Unit Fund - Chuf
Designworks Business Centre
William Street
Gateshead
NE10 0JP
Tel: 0191 281 3166
Email: info@chuf.org.uk
Chuf is a registered charity in England and Wales No 1160831 © 2026.
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