Sophie M's quilt    (Quilt Completed)

Thank you

A massive thank you to everyone from Sophie. Her quilt came at just the right time - she's been unwell the last week so it brightened her up. A million thank yous...you're all amazing xx

Finished photos

Individual squares

Fabric

Card

Stitched by: Debbie Elkington

Biography

When Sophie was born she seemed perfectly healthy. After three days though she still hasn't passed her first meconium and was rushed into hospital. Sophie was very poorly but they did not know what was wrong with her. She had scans, blood tests and biopsies but we left hospital a week later still not knowing. Eight weeks later we got called in for the final test. Sophie by now was putting weight on and was thriving so we weren't really worried and had put the previous hospital visit behind us. When they told us the next day the test had come back positive and Sophie had Cystic Fibrosis we were really shocked. Suddenly our lives revolved around medication and a strict regime of physiotherapy and treatments.

When Sophie was 7 months old we went on a family holiday to France (along with bags full of medication). Sophie became very unwell when we were there and she spent a week on a life support machine. To be in a different country when our baby was so unwell was horrific. We were flown back to a British hospital after two weeks and Sophie was fed through a tube for the following four months. Since this period of illness Sophie has not been back into hospital but has continued to have issues with eating and weight gain.

Sophie's current health depends on her adherence to treatments, which for a seven year old are quite arduous. She takes over 40 tablets a day, has two physiotherapy sessions and does her nebuliser without too much of a fuss. Her poor weight gain and issues with food stemming from being tube fed means she often misses out on playtime at school so that she can eat. When Sophie has a chest infection (which is very frequently through the autism and winter months) it can mean she is off school for pro longed periods and has to take very strong antibiotics and the threat of hospitalisation is always very present.