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LISTEN: 20 years of the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation

LISTEN: 20 years of the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation

Wednesday 15 November 2023

LISTEN: 20 years of the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation

Wednesday 15 November 2023


Twenty years ago a baby was born five-weeks early, on what would later by co-incidence be named World Prematurity Day, with her parents devoting the next two decades of their lives to helping other tiny patients.

Danniella Priaulx and her elder brother Sebastian were both born premature.

When he was born their parents - Jo and Andy Priaulx - were living in the UK, and had to leave him in the hospital overnight when Jo was well enough to go home.

By the time Danniella was born the family had moved back to Guernsey, but with Andy experiencing success in his career he was often away. A trip to Macau weeks before his daughter was due to be born turned into an emotional waiting game when Danniella arrived five weeks early, and Jo was left very unwell herself.

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Pictured: Jo Priaulx holding son Sebastian when he was a few weeks old and well enough to leave his incubator.

"(Sebastian) was very premature, much more prem than Danniella actually," recalls Jo while Andy remembers having "such great care with the neonatal nurses and doctors and all of the people from Seb right through to Danniella and we sat on the end of the bed and we were like, 'we've got to do something for these guys. They're amazing'."

With Andy modestly describing his career as "going really well" at that time, he wanted to use his profile to fundraise to buy a new incubator for the Princess Elizabeth Hospital which had saved both his daughter and his wife's lives.

Calling on support from family, friends and contacts, Andy and Jo went on to build enough momentum in raising money to buy the incubator that they didn't stop there.

With Richard Le Tocq helping them on the financial side of things, the three of them went on to form the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation.

While the charity was first formed in the months after Danniella's birth, the celebrations of World Prematurity Day - and Danniella's 20th birthday - have been chosen to highlight the charity's work too.

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Pictured: Andy and Jo Priaulx and others have supported hundreds of families through the PPBF.

Jo, Andy and Richard are keen that the huge support they've had from thousands of people across the islands and in the UK, and elsewhere are highlighted too.

Richard was tasked with ensuring that financial support was always handled correctly.

"At the time, I was about two years into a start up company with a couple of colleagues as a finance director with my background and governance. I said, 'this is how we should do this, we should set up a proper trust in place, get advice from advocates and things' and that's exactly what we did.

"So we had that from the outset and we've continued to build on that since, but clearly making sure that things were run well, but also making sure that accounts were available, transparency was there so everybody could see if they wanted to where the funds are being used and so on."

Jo has always taken the lead in the fundraising and as the face of the charity - a role which Andy says was built around her ideas from the very start.

"...when you have a prem baby, it's unexpected. Not everybody can just leave at the drop of a hat and not everybody can afford to leave the island, so Jo helped.

"Some of the things that used to really get me was that she'd give them a little SIM card that would work in England or the baby box idea, and the (photo) printer was another idea."

As technology has moved on the charity has bought various new pieces of kit for the PEH such as 'hot cots' and baby brain monitors, while also keeping an "army of knitters" busy as they continually make hats and booties for the tiny babies born locally.

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Pictured: Danniella Priaulx as a baby and with Becky Rowe who is a supporter of the PPBF.

Andy says all of this is centred around Jo's passion for the charity.

"...it's quite amazing how much drive Jo has for the charity," he says, "it's clearly a life mission.

"She goes beyond the norm and we all know...Richard has come to our meetings for 20 years, we've all got busy lives, and we're all tired but we still do what we've got to do. But Jo is the one that does it every day, and she is very high energy because there's always somebody that needs something. Whether it's Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, I've seen her on the phone on New Year's Eve. We were away this weekend and she was on the phone all weekend. It's just constant, it never stops."

Jo says for her, that drive comes from a very personal place: "Every time I speak to a family, it takes me right back to when Seb was born. I just want to help."

With an event planned for this weekend to mark both World Prematurity Day and the 20th anniversary of the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation, she says those feelings never go away.

"We've heard some stories of late - some babies have been born and they're really going through a lot and I feel for that.

"I'm so pleased that Seb, in the end, there was nothing wrong with him. It took a while for him to grow. In the first year, he didn't grow like a normal baby, he was quite tiny for a long time, but he's perfect, you know, a little fighter."

In trying to help other parents with their own little fighters Jo is constantly coming up with new ideas. With three flats in Southampton for the use of the families of premature babies and ill children who need treatment at the hospital there, she also knows that the little things are vitally important too.

That's why this weekend the PPBF is launching a pre-loved clothing campaign. With premature babies needing tiny clothes they want to offer a chance for people to donate any clothes their children have grown out of, to be used by new babies.

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Pictured: Andy Priaulx (far left) and Jo Priaulx (second right) with Sammy Meerveld (far right) who works with Jo at PPBF, and the charity's ambassadors and trustees, including Richard Le Tocq (fourth left). 

Jo, Andy and Richard all have long term plans for the charity, with Andy saying part of his dream is to create a legacy that will outlive all of them.

The three flats in Southampton - Isaac's Pad, Aggie's Burrow and Frankie's Flat - are part of that, along with the team of Ambassadors they've chosen to represent the PPBF. Those Ambassadors include two 'honorary' ones - Seb and the birthday girl, Danniella.

Richard is hoping that together all of the Ambassadors, the few staff, and everyone who has worked with the charity over the past two decades will act as an inspiration to other people wanting to support other charities too.

"Part of what I wanted to do with this and help get the word out there is for other people to get involved in charities, no matter how small," he said.

"If you've got skills and you've got a bit of time that you can dedicate, it can make a big difference."

The Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation has been the Connect magazine charity partner of the year.

Read the charity's articles in our magazine HERE.

LISTEN: 

READ MORE...

Caring for babies, supporting their families

New video tech to support premature baby parents

"Please, please, breast feed" when possible 

Priaulx Baby Charity launches new website

C5 supports Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation

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