The Leeds Building Society is again working with the Tiny Lives charity.
The mutual’s employees are raising funds for premature and ill newborn babies in the region.
In 2012, 72 colleagues at the administrative office and contact centre at Silverlink, and 53 colleagues in the 11 branches across the region and branches across the UK, fundraised for Tiny Lives. Their dress down days, Easter Egg competition quiz night, a tuck shop, and a slimming club, and a Jubilee bike ride across the region involving 14 colleagues raised £6,000.
Their fundraising will support the vital role of the Paediatric Physiotherapist whose post is funded by Tiny Lives. This position is part of a model of excellence in the UK providing the highest quality care in the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) at the RVI. The physiotherapist assesses and treats babies, trains nursing staff, helps parents help their child, and provides follow up care in development clinics long after discharge.
The neonatal work involves monitoring very premature babies who may need to be nursed intensively for long periods of time. This includes checking they are supported correctly and assessing their head, neck and arms movement, as sometimes they can develop muscle tightness. The physiotherapist works closely with parents, asking them what their baby ‘settles with’, how they move, and gives them ideas on ways in which they can help their babies. If a baby has ‘tight hips’ she teaches parents how to perform his stretching exercises and gives them a photographic plan to help them remember what to do.
In 2013, Tiny Lives is working with Leeds Building Society to offer volunteering opportunities and support a range of employee led fundraising activities being devised and delivered locally.
Martin Ward Platt, Consultant Paediatrician and Chair of the Tiny Lives committee said: “Each year more than 700 premature or ill babies are born across the North East and Cumbria requiring specialised and intensive care. We are extremely grateful to the employees of the Leeds Building Society for all their fundraising activities and especially for continuing to support Tiny Lives.”