Hallie was beginning her A Levels when she was met in A&E by a volunteer on shift; she was in a moment of crisis, following self-harm.  She was feeling overwhelmed due to several life changes and feeling isolated.

Hallie was keen to be matched with a volunteer mentor so she would have someone to talk to and support her in navigating these issues. Hallie and her volunteer mentor would meet weekly to work towards Hallie’s goals.

Hallie grew in confidence, working with her mentor on a toolkit for managing her anxieties on a daily basis. She strengthened her friendships, making new friends and repairing old ones.  Hallie started working part time alongside her education.  She began driving lessons, passed her test and was able to get a car which increased her independence.

She has reported increased confidence, reduced anxiety and she no longer self-harms. When she moved on from mentoring, she said she now knows she has a good support system around her, and a balance of what she wants in her life.  She has just completed her A-levels and is now at University. 

QUOTE(S)
“I met 2 people last night at A and E when I was feeling in a dark place and for the first time I felt a tiny bit hopeful that I could have someone to talk to and who might understand a bit of what I'm going through.”

 "A man approached us with a box of chocolates when we were on shift and said, "My son wouldn’t be here if it wasn't for the Navigators".

Berkshire mum Laura Turner was putting her two-month-old son, Charlie, into his car seat ready to leave the house for a baby music class when suddenly she was transported from an everyday situation into every parent’s worst nightmare.

Charlie’s normal newborn cry suddenly changed to a more strained sound that Laura hadn’t heard him make before. She realised with a jolt that he had stopped breathing. Quickly taking him out of his seat, Laura felt her baby was floppy and had gone a grey colour. Remembering seeing that there was blood coming out of Charlie’s nose, Laura recalls: “I thought that was it. I thought he was gone.”

At home alone, she had a moment of panic before her instincts kicked in. Laura says, “something just took over. I knew what I had to do.”

Laura had done a first aid course while pregnant with Charlie, so she knew how to give him rescue breaths. She called 999 and a few minutes later, Charlie started breathing slowly. Holding her son in the baby recovery position, Laura began the agonising wait for the emergency services to arrive. “It was only six minutes until the ambulance service and Thames Valley Air Ambulance crew got to us. But those were the longest six minutes of my life. It felt like forever.”

Once help was on hand, the rest is a blur. The Thames Valley Air Ambulance paramedics and doctors, who had arrived by helicopter, worked with South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) to get Charlie stable and he was taken to the Royal Berkshire hospital.

Laura went with Charlie in the ambulance and remembers that Charlie’s dad met them at the hospital. “It was then that I broke down”, she says, “until that point, I had no choice but to be strong for Charlie. The reality of what we had been through just suddenly dawned on me.”

Thankfully, Charlie is now a healthy, happy three-year-old. A chatty boy who loves to learn, he is thriving at pre-school.

Laura is saying thank you in a very real way this April when she runs the Unleashed Performance Reading Half Marathon. As well as finding the training positive for her physical and mental health, Laura says “I wanted to be able to give something back. I didn’t even realise Thames Valley Air Ambulance was a charity before they helped Charlie and now I want to do anything I can to help.”

Charlie has been told about what happened to him when he was a baby and is currently taking on the SCAS ‘outrun the ambulance’ challenge on his bike, accompanying Laura on her training runs.

Who is betting against Charlie being the loudest cheerer of all, in the stadium on April 3rd?