FRIENDS and family of a young mum who died after a tragic accident when she was seven months pregnant have raised almost £4,000 in her memory for the Intensive Care Unit at University Hospital, Coventry where she was treated and where her daughter was miraculously born fit and well.
Last summer, Debbie Gallagher, from Chelmsley Wood, and her partner Mike were blissfully happy and looking forward to their life together.
With their first child due in September they were decorating a new family home and were about to move in with Debbie’s two sons aged 15 and nine.
But all changed on the night of July 24.
“We’d gone to bed saying how happy we were.” said Mike.
“Then there was a loud bang from downstairs that woke me up.
“I shouted down for Debbie but with no reply.
“I got up to find her and saw a figure lying at the bottom of the stairs, I raced down to her and found blood coming from behind her ear.”
The ambulance took Debbie to the region’s major trauma centre at University Hospital, Coventry where doctors managed to deliver baby Daisy on the July 25 by caesarean section.
Tragically, Debbie passed away the next day in the Intensive Care Unit.
To help them come to terms with her death and celebrate her life, Debbie’s devastated family and friends set about organising a number of fundraising events in her memory.
Over the following year Mike, her dad James Gallagher (Jim), Jim’s partner Lynn, and sister-in-law Rachael Faultless-Hodgson hit the fundraising trail with a variety of events in Debbie’s memory inlcuding a sponsored walk and a 60s night.
Almost £4,000 was raised in Debbie’s memory and donated to UHCW Charity for the Intensive Care Unit at Coventry’s University Hospital.
“Mike and Debbie’s story had a real impact on the team in intensive care and we are incredibly grateful and humbled by the family for raising this money for us,” said Elaine Clarke, Modern Matron of the Intensive Care Unit.
The money raised will be used by UHCW Charity (the hospital charity) to help fund new equipment and facilities to enhance the care of patients on the Intensive Care Unit, which the NHS cannot afford.
