Elijah’s Story

On Saturday 15th August when Elizabeth was only 22 weeks pregnant, her waters broke. She was taken to Pembury hospital and then rushed to Brighton as this was the nearest hospital with the facilities to cater for her needs as they tried to keep the baby healthy and inside. But the little man had other plans and decided that he wanted to make his appearance 16 and a half weeks early weighing only 1lb 3oz. Elijah William Johnson was born at 03:22 Friday 21st August. He is currently being cared for at the neonatal specialist baby unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton 60 miles away from where we live in Kent, due to the local hospitals not having the facilities to accommodate for his needs. Not being able to drive we have a 2 and half hour train journey to Brighton and so booked into a hotel. However due to the COVID-19 situation the charity run hospital accommodation for parents such as ourselves is closed and we are therefore having to stay at normal hotels and travel to and from the hospital via taxi which as you can imagine is quite pricy and although we have been able to sustain this for now our funds are very quickly dwindling (the hotel alone for the duration on stay so far 15th - 1st sept has cost £1283.35) and we have been told he could be in there for several months yet. I’m a working man and have ever since I’ve left school. I have always paid my taxes and national insurance and have never asked anyone for help in my life but needs must so have had to set up a go fund me page to help raise funds for accommodation, travel, food etc so we can stay closer to our son. Anything you can donate which will help us stay nearby so we can spend as much time as possible with him during these worrying times would be much appreciated. Thank you.