Derry to host tattoo fundraiser for children's heart charity

A SPECIAL tattoo charity event to raise money for a children’s heart charity is to take place in Derry next month.

The ‘Tattoos are Good for the Heart’ event has been organised by local Derry couple Damien and Hayley Doherty who were given much-needed support by the Children’s Heartbeat Trust when their newborn son Dexter was born with a heart condition.

Dexter was diagnosed with Congenitally Corrected Transposition of the Great Arteries (CCTGA), Situs Inversus, an unusual condition where the position of the heart’s pumping chambers and attached valves are switched.

The condition was first picked up during the 20 week foetal anomaly scan and the Kilfennan couple were told that once he was born he would need to get surgery.

The couple spent the first few weeks of Dexter’s life at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast and it was here that Mr and Mrs Doherty were given the support they needed, in the form of accommodation, by the Children’s Heartbeat Trust.

Speaking about the charity, Mr Doherty said, “There’s a facility at the Royal Victoria Hospital called Heartbeat Home and it’s accommodation for families to stay in while they have to stay up there.

“The charity do various different things but the best thing they do is run that accommodation.

“No matter where you come from in Ireland if you have to go the Royal and spend time there, there’s a bedroom and a living room and shared bathroom facilities and that’s all paid for just by this charity.

“Being from Derry if you didn’t have that you’d have to spend a lot of money to live and stay up there.

“Hopefully you’d have a friend or relative and could sleep on somebody’s sofa but the charity’s accommodation is in the hospital itself.

“It’s literally about three corridors away from the children’s heart ward so you could get up in the morning and in a minute and a half you’re back in the ward with your child. It’s a brilliant, brilliant facility that they have.”

The Doherty family now hope to raise money for the charity that brought them support when they most needed it.

They are holding an all-day tattooing fundraiser with people asked to come along and have a tattoo of a heart to represent the charity, with £25 of the £30 cost going straight to Children’s Heartbeat Trust.

This is the second year the event has taken place with over £5,000 raised last year.

Mr Doherty said that this year’s target of 150 people, the maximum they would have time to do in one day, had already been reached.