A mum built her daughter her own winter wonderland in their conservatory after she was too sick to join a hospice trip to Lapland.
Helen Sadler used some incredible creativity and DIY for her five-year-old daughter Erin, who suffers from a life-threatening condition.
Helen, 40, used their old medicine packs and syringe boxes to create a stunning fairy castle complete with polar bears:
It includes a polar bear’s cave, a frozen lake for seals, and even reindeer built from papier-mache, cardboard, and glitter.
The centrepiece of the magnificent display is a snow queen, sitting in a wooden sleigh which was made by Erin’s grandad, Philip.
Former NHS worker Helen said:
When we finished it, Erin thought it was amazing and said, ‘Nice job, mum’. She absolutely loves it.
When the community nurses come over she leads them round, showing it off. She’s a firecracker of a child and she’s got an amazing sense of humour.
Erin, of Colchester, Essex, has spent most of her life in hospital with kidney and liver diseases. She also has a heart condition which requires surgery, but doctors have deemed the operation ‘too risky’.
Talking about Erin’s illness, Helen said:
We were having three transfusions a day just to get to the next day. She’s a very complex case. But where’s there’s life, there’s hope.
We keep going but the surgery she needs is ultimately not being offered.
When Erin’s hospice organised the Lapland trip, Helen had to sadly decline due to her condition.
Helen continued:
I was so disappointed for her. I said to dad, ‘What can we do?’ So we decided to make our own winter wonderland.
I’ve had massive compliments on Facebook. It’s been so well-received.
It’s not unusual for parents to do anything for their young, and one heroic mother was left covered in bruises after protecting her baby from huge hail stones in a storm:
Fiona Simpson was driving with her baby daughter and grandmother through southeast Queensland on October 11 when they got caught in a supercell tornado.
The huge storm tore through Tansey, a small town 250km north of Brisbane, throwing down tennis ball-sized hail stones, which smashed through Fiona’s car windows.
The hail battered down on the occupants of the car as they drove on the D’Aguilar Highway at Coolabunia, 88km south of Tansey, causing them to pull over, leaving Fiona with awful cuts and bruises.
Despite her attempts to shield her baby, the huge chunks of ice hit Fiona’s daughter on the head but she was largely shielded from serious injury.
Explaining what happened, she wrote on Facebook:
I’ve learnt my lesson today, NEVER drive in a hail storm! We parked on the side of the road when the storm got to heavy and the hail blew out our windows. I covered my infant with my body to stop her from getting badly injured. [sic]
Please, please be careful in this storm season.
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