11 July 2012
Wendy and Amanda Black were able to see their daughter Olivia, who has a life limiting condition, walk down the aisle on their wedding day thanks to the care and support from Keech Hospice Care.
The family decided to give back to the hospice that has helped them on their special day by having their wedding favours at their reception.
Amanda and Wendy, who are both nurses, met 11 years ago while working on the same ward at Milton Keynes Hospital. The couple have two children, Owen, 5 years old and Olivia who is 4 years old. When Olivia was born she was diagnosed with a very rare debilitating neurological syndrome CDKL5, with only 300 known cases in the world.
Olivia’s condition is similar to Retts syndrome which means that she is fed through a tube, has low muscle tone; she can’t talk and has severe developmental delay. Olivia also has daily seizures which have never been controlled. They last over ten minutes each time and require oxygen to help her. Olivia has been visiting Keech Hospice Care since she was a year old and enjoys many of the therapies on offer as well as working on her physiotherapy with the staff.
Keech also allows the family to receive respite care and they enjoy the hydrotherapy pool which allows them to take part in family swims, while Owen enjoys the sibling activities such as the parties and trips to Woburn.
Amanda said: “Olivia has been having physiotherapy every week for the last few years which has been crucial to her progress. We decided to get married this year as she has come on so well and we thought it would be nice to have her walking down the aisle."
"On the afternoon of the wedding Olivia actually had a seizure and we were worried that she would not be well enough to take part in the ceremony. However, as with everything Olivia tackled the challenge head on and beat all odds by walking down the aisle of Bletchley registry office in her beautiful dress assisted by our two matrons of honour. It was truly amazing and I was bursting with joy to have our children take part in our wedding and to be marrying the love of my life.”
“The wedding was beautiful and I couldn’t have asked for more. The reception was at The Grange in Grange Farm in Milton Keynes and was stunning. We decided to involve Keech on our wedding day after spending a night at Keech for respite care where we saw a leaflet advertising the wedding favours. We thought it was a great way to benefit Keech and not only was it something quirky and a bit different, just like us, but it was also really personal. Wendy was dressed in silver which matched our theme of the silver wedding favours. They looked gorgeous and we were extremely pleased.”
“I would definitely recommend anyone to use Keech Hospice Care wedding favours. I was really impressed with how great they looked and seeing how much the money really impacts the hospice, made it that extra bit special.”
The Keech lottery team will be exhibiting their wedding favours at the MK Dons Wedding Show at the Doubletree by Hilton, Milton Keynes on Sun 15 July 2012.
Keech Hospice Care offers wedding favours as a gift twice over - once to your guests and again to the local Hospice. You are able to enjoy your big day in the knowledge that this gift will make a real difference to our patients and their families. Playing our lottery couldn't be simpler. Players are allocated a unique six-digit number and the lucky winning numbers are selected at random every Friday by the lottery computer. Players have the opportunity to win weekly prizes of £1000, £250, £50, £25, £10 and all profits from Keech Hospice Care’s lottery go towards helping Keech Hospice Care run its adult and children’s services.
