News & Events

The third annual soccer (futsal) marathon, Kicking Goals for Kids, will take place from 6pm Friday 5 September to 6pm Saturday 6 September at Tyndale Christian School, 58 Douglas Road, Blacktown NSW 2148.  Children (and those who are still kids at heart) from 5 to 105 years old can play, and help the team to raise funds for the Heart Centre for Children and the Oncology unit at CHW.  The more the merrier!  For more information and to stay updated, go to http://www.facebook.com/kicking.goals.for.kids.  To sponsor or donate, head to https://give.everydayhero.com/au/kicking-goals-for-kids-with-cancer.  We hope to see some of our patients and families there for some of the 24 hours of fun!

The first baby ever to have been delivered at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, due to her critical condition that meant she required immediate surgery, little Nyah and her family shared their story on Channel 9 News over the weekend.  For the video, head to http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/07/26/22/59/baby-girl-home-again-after-multiple-heart-surgeries.

Zipper Tickers, the Newcastle-based group of Mums who last year raised over $40,000 towards a new echo machine, is this year organising a Charity Golf Day to help fund a new heart-lung machine (which keeps our little patients alive during open-heart surgery).  Details of the day and how to register your team are on the website, www.zippertickers.com: Please join us at Newcastle’s premier golf club Pacific Dunes on Friday 31st October for what promises to be a fun filled day of golf and laughter as we raise funds towards the purchase of a new Heart Lung By-Pass machine for the Heart Centre for Children. Format for the day will be a 4 man Ambrose/Shot gun start. On course novelty competitions and prizes. Ticket price includes golf, cart hire, breakfast, lunch and drinks package. We hope to see many of you there! ...

We are delighted to announce that thanks to the incredible generosity of the Sargents Pies Charitable Foundation, the Heart Centre for Children will be replacing our cardiac catheterisation lab in late 2014.  This paediatric cath lab is the only one of its kind in New South Wales, and it allows us to perform keyhole surgery on children who would otherwise require open heart surgery.  This means that sick children can be treated and go home faster, which is incredible.  All of our staff, as well as patients and families, are very grateful for the opportunity to have the best possible equipment thanks to donors like Sargents Pies so that we can have the best results for our sickest little patients. We wish to thank the Sargents Pies team for their amazing gesture and look forward to opening the new cath lab in the new year.

We recently held three raffles for bikes donated by a generous supporter of the Heart Centre for Children.  These were drawn on the 3rd of June and I wish to congratulate the winners:

• The Foley family
• The Williams family, and
• The Tamar family

We hope you enjoy your prizes and look forward to seeing photos of you on them!

One of our adolescent patients is writing a book about congenital heart disease and would like to speak to other children and their families about it.  If you are interested in sharing your story, please Contact Us and we will put you in touch.  Alternatively, call me on (02) 9845 2326 to discuss.  Many thanks!

Congratulations to our very own Nurse Practitioner, Glenda Fleming, for being awarded the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network Excellence in Nursing Award.  Glenda joined the Heart Centre team just a few months ago, having worked in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) previously, and is a wonderful addition to our team.  On behalf of everyone at the Heart Centre, we are so proud of you, Glenda!

Thank you so much to our friend Jasmine who decided to do a little good these school holidays and set up a bake sale outside her house to raise money for the Heart Centre for Children.  Jasmine and her grandmother baked all day to have a table full of goodies for people to choose from, and then Jasmine and her friends Amelie, Astrid, Chloe, Georgia and Violet sold the cookies and cakes, raising a fantastic $83.50 for us.  The money will be put towards purchasing a Heart-Lung Machine, to help us to perform life-saving surgery on babies and children just like Jasmine, who was born with a heart condition. What an amazing young lady!  Thank you Jasmine!! Click here to find out How You Can Help too. ...

William was born with a rare form of congenital heart disease involving a complex single ventricle.  After undergoing several surgeries to give him a special Fontan circulation, William finally had the energy to run around like other children his age.  Celebrating his first soccer game last week was a dream come true for William and his family, and a delight for the Heart Centre for Children staff to see, thanks to these photos from William's Mum, Lisa.  To find out more about a range of heart conditions, click here. To help us to help more children like William, go to our How You Can Help page. ...

We are currently hiring a Perfusionist and an Imaging Fellow at the Heart Centre for Children.  More information can be found at:

Perfusionist - https://nswhealth.erecruit.com.au/ViewPosition.aspx?Id=189457

Imaging Fellow - https://nswhealth.erecruit.com.au/ViewPosition.aspx?Id=190977