Swimming to raise funds for premature babies and their families in special Cavan

A Bailieborough native is swimming 31km over the month of January to raise funds for the Cavan Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU).

It is the sixth year that Aaron Hynes has undertaken the challenge, raising around €6,000 for the cause to date. In previous years he has ran, walked or did press ups; however this year he has decided to swim.

Aaron has carried out the fundraiser every January since he and his wife Samantha’s child was born 10 weeks prematurely on May 21, 2018. The fundraiser serves as a way to give back to Cavan SCBU who cared for the family, but also to help other parents who suddenly find themselves looking after a premature baby.

“We were actually at the cinema when he started to arrive and we drove around to Cavan hospital,” recalled Aaron.

Assured that everything was okay, Aaron returned home while Samantha stayed in the care of Cavan hospital. That night, Aaron got a phone call that sent the family into panic.

“Halfway through the night then, things changed and Harry was coming.

“Just as I arrived, Sam was being brought into theatre.”

Born at three pounds in weight, Harry was taken to SCBU where he spent two days before being transferred to Holles Street Hospital with pneumothorax; a collapsed lung. With his son on life support, Aaron recalled the ambulance coming to take their son to Dublin.

“The day that they came to collect him with the ambulance they were coming with forms to sign his life away because they’re saying ‘we obviously don’t know what’s going to happen between here and Dublin’.

“I think there was about 15 or 20 people in the room at that point,” he recalled.

“We hadn’t a clue what was going on, we didn’t know how serious the whole ten weeks was, obviously doctors and nurses try to keep you calm.

“It’s terrifying because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Harry spent six days in the hospital in Dublin. During this time, Aaron noticed how small charitable gestures in times like this made a difference. A charity put him up in a hotel for the night. On other days he was paying around €30 for street parking; however one day when he pulled in, he had the good fortune of meeting a Cavan woman living in Dublin, who let him park in her residence parking space.

“You meet so many nice people when you’re in situations like that. It meant that I was able to just go straight and park and go in rather than trying to drive around Merrion Square to try to get in somewhere to park.”

Meanwhile, thankfully, Harry “went from strength to strength”.

“We were very lucky compared to some of the other kids.”

Harry came back to Cavan SCBU, where he spent the following six to eight weeks among “great” nurses and doctors.

“They were brilliant, even with Sam’s recovery.”

Now nearly seven years later with his happy and healthy family, Aaron looked back on those premature weeks.

“We were terrified really. We obviously had absolutely nothing sorted, Harry was our second baby, with our first we had everything prepped.

“With the second one, you don’t do all that, you’re not a new parent, you’re more used to what’s going to happen.

“We had ten weeks.”

The night before his second son was born, Aaron had handed in his final university thesis.

“I had just finished college, Sam hadn’t got maternity, she was still working. No finances were sorted.”

While Harry and Samantha were still in hospital, Aaron was juggling job interviews and caring for his first son Mark.

“It was all over the place,” he recalled.

During this time, Aaron began teaching in Ardee school before moving to Bailieborough Community School, where he now teaches Computer Science and Geography. Now in senior infants, Harry’s school work and capabilities are in flying form and he is “quite a tall boy for his age”.

His father is now on day nine of the fundraiser. Last year the family donated twelve breast pumps to Cavan SCBU, with enough funds to also buy twelve €10 vouchers for Toymaster (now Znoogle) which also gave a 20% discount. The idea came from another kind gesture offered to the family in a time of need.

“We were given by a breast pump by a charity in Holles Street.

“When you have a premature baby, they try to encourage you to breast feed because it’s obviously best for the baby.

“We were given a breast pump that we could take home.”

This year, Aaron will contact SCBU to see where funds raised can be best placed.

“It’s a massive thing to happen to them [parents] and any small thing that can make a difference or make it a little bit easier.”

To donate, click here.