The N&N Hospitals Charity is delighted to announce the 2025 Charity Champions recognising the individuals, teams and businesses who have supported our Charity throughout the year.
Inspiration Award - Karen Green
Karen Green has raised £11,367 for NICU where both of her premature babies were cared for after being born just 10 months apart.
The couple’s first son, Hunter, was born in March 2022 at 28 weeks, weighing just 1kg and spent 70 days in NICU at the N&N. The following year, Jesse was born at 29 weeks, weighing 1.4kg and spent 123 days in NICU.
Since then, Karen has completed the Brighton Half Marathon, Catton Park 5k, a raffle and, most recently, her husband Lee completed the Inverness Marathon while injury and a blood clot forced Karen to take on the 5k instead, completing it in a great time.
NICU is a scary place. No-one knows what it’s like unless you have been through it. Going to hospital pregnant but not leaving with your baby is truly heart wrenching saying goodnight tucking them in kissing their forehead and going home is painful, it becomes relentless.
The truth is we leave our babies with miracle workers, and these miracle workers make life possible, they make our dreams come true… make the moment we all dream of to take our babies home
with their families.Karen Green
Lifetime Supporter Award - Claire Nicholl
Claire Nicholl has raised more than £60,000 for NICU and EACH in memory of baby Harrison who died in 2010.
Claire and husband Simon suffered heartbreak when their son Harrison Alexander Nicholl died four days after being born. Since then, Claire and Simon and their family and friends have fundraised in Harrison’s memory, including organising charity balls and walks.
Items purchased for NICU include a £6,000 portable ventilator and, most recently, £3,000 towards a VCreate secure video technology system.
Corporate Award - Desira Group
Desira Group has supported our charity over many years, most recently as headline sponsor at our first Charity Golf Day at Barnham Broom which raised thousands of pounds for our Surgical Robots appeal.
Desira’s support dates back to 2019 and beyond and the launch of our Boudicca Breast Cancer Appeal when the group donated a car to be raffled as part of the fundraising appeal
We are so grateful to everyone at Desira for continuing to support what we do across a whole range of events and appeals.
Community Award - Ovarian Cancer Support Group
Ovarian Cancer Support Group has raised money to create comfort packs for patients. The group has raised money through bake sales and other events, with one member personally donating £1,000.
Young Fundraiser - Theo Harrison
Theo Harrison – the eight-year-old, who spent his first weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit at the N&N, completed a marathon run raising more than £3,000 for the department which cared for him.
Theo was born with a serious lung defect but instead of asking for toys for his birthday he asked for a pair of new running shoes to take on the challenge to run 26 miles throughout March.
Theo spent one month in total at the NICU at the N&N and Great Ormond Street Hospital, which is where he had surgery at 19 days old to remove a lesion from his left lung.
The team at NNUH NICU played a huge role in Theo being transferred to GOSH to get the surgery that he needed – we will be forever grateful to Dr Florence and the team for really fighting Theo’s corner.
Sam, Theo's mum