Tiny feet, big mountain

A three-year-old from Mirfield in West Yorkshire is taking on a mountainous challenge to give back to the hospital that saved his life when he was just six weeks old.

Chester Wolf will be climbing Yr Wydffa (Mount Snowdon) in Wales this weekend with his family, including his six-year-old brother, and is aiming to raise £500 for The Children’s Hospital Charity – the charity that supports Sheffield Children’s Hospital - to say thank you for the care he received initially and the care he still receives with a consultant.

In June 2021, when Chester was just six weeks old, he suffered a respiratory arrest.

Mum, Amy, explains: “We had taken Chester to our local hospital three times, but we’d been sent home. One morning, he really wasn’t well, and my husband was having an MRI scan at the hospital, so we both went with him so I could take Chester to A&E again.

“When we got there and got him out of the car, we pulled his hood back and he was dark blue, bleeding from the nose, foaming at the mouth and not breathing. We ran into hospital screaming ‘my baby’s not breathing’.”

After being resuscitated at their local hospital, Chester was ventilated and put into an induced coma. He underwent a CT scan to monitor his brain function and was then transferred to Sheffield Children’s by Embrace, the highly specialist, round-the-clock transport service for critically ill infants and children. They transport patients in Yorkshire and the Humber who require care in another hospital in the region or further afield.

Chester’s journey took around 45 minutes, with his mum travelling with him in the ambulance.

Amy continues: “It was all such a shock. I have never felt adrenaline like it. It was a perfectly healthy pregnancy, and he was a perfectly healthy baby until this happened. You just go into fight-or-flight mode as a parent, and we had no choice but to fight for him.”

Chester spent the next three weeks in the Paediatric Critical Care Unit (PCCU) at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, receiving round-the-clock care.

Tests revealed he had contracted three respiratory viruses - RSV positive bronchiolitis, Parainfluenza and Rhinovirus. Chester also suffered from secondary pneumonia and a potentially life-threatening collapsed lung, known as pneumothorax.

His care at Sheffield Children’s included being ventilated on two occasions, as well as physiotherapy and repetitive bagging and suction to clear his lungs. He also required a blood transfusion before finally being well enough to go home.

To say thank you for the care he received initially and the care he still receives with a consultant, Chester’s family and friends have dedicated themselves to fundraising for The Children’s Hospital Charity, and they’ve raised just under £11,000 over the past three years already.

Previous fundraisers include a festival-themed 1^st birthday party, ‘ChestFest’, for Chester, as well as a sponsored bike ride, a raffle, and last year, Amy did the National 3 Peaks Challenge, the Great North Run and the Manchester Marathon.

The Snowdon climb is just the latest in a long line of incredible fundraisers that the family has done to say thank you to all the doctors and nurses that saved Chester’s life.

He will be joined on the challenge by his brother, mum Amy, stepdad, nana and grandad, making it a real family affair.

To prepare, they’ve been doing lots of walking, including a few mountains, fitting it in on the weekends around work and school.

They’re starting their Snowdon trek bright and early this Friday 18 April at 6am and are hoping to complete it in roughly six hours, finishing around lunchtime.

Amy says: “Chester has grown up to be the kindest, happiest, most loving little boy who just wants to help others. I am so proud of him, especially after everything he has been through!

“Me and Chester owe everything to the hospital and will continue to raise money for as long as we can.

“Without them, he wouldn’t be here. I’m really looking forward to telling him all about it when he’s older, and I know that Chester will want to carry on raising money.

“All donations for our Snowdon climb are greatly received and will help this amazing charity and hospital to continue providing the wonderful care that it does to the children that need it.”

To support Chester’s Snowdon climb, please visit his GoFundMe page here.