Mother raises nearly £13k at charity ball in daughter’s memory

A mother from a Lincolnshire village raised nearly £13,000 for charity in memory of her daughter at a charity ball.

Lucy Crow from Mumby hosted a charity ball on what would have been her daughter Megan’s 18th birthday.

Megan appeared to be a healthy baby when she was born at Pilgrim Hospital in June 2001, but two days later her mother spotted problems. Megan wasn’t feeding, her lips had turned blue and she had difficulty breathing.

After further tests at the specialist cardiac department at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester doctors diagnosed Megan with a serious congenital heart condition called pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum. This meant her heart had not developed properly whilst she was in the womb.

Lucy is pictured with her daughter Megan, who was born with a complex congenital heart condition.

The condition was so severe that she was not suitable for any surgical treatment. She was transferred back to Pilgrim Hospital where she remained in an incubator and received oxygen and constant monitoring from nurses.

Despite the best medical treatment, Megan died of heart disease on July 18 2001 and was just 33 days old.

Megan was just 33 days old when she sadly passed away.

Mother Lucy, 37, said: “Life afterwards was tough. I remember finding it so difficult to go home because we even had the nursery made up for Megan’s arrival and I couldn’t face it.”

Lucy and her family wanted Megan’s legacy to live on and they decided to do something special to mark what would have been her 18th birthday on June 15, 2019.

Her daughter Olivia came up with the idea of wanting to do something and they hosted Megan’s Memorial Ball at The Suncastle in Skegness. After learning of the research that the British Heart Foundation funds into heart and circulatory conditions, they decided to host the charity ball.

Over 250 people attended the event and raised more than £6,000 on the night. This has since ben match-funded by Barclays so the total amount raised has been revealed as £12,700.

Lucy pictured with her daughter Megan.

Lucy, 37, said: “It was an amazing night. It was heart themed, so we had balloons, BHF cakes and banners, and there was a three-course meal, entertainment, raffle and games. On the night, I also did a speech and it was the first time I’d really publicly spoken about Megan, so it was very emotional.

“We cannot believe how much we have raised and we want to say a massive thank you to everyone who was involved in the event. We wanted to raise money for the BHF because we know that this will go towards life saving research.

“In my speech, I said that we hope that by raising money, we will help to prevent other families having to go through what we did. We hope it will fund better treatments and even help save lives.”

After Megan’s death Lucy had two more children – daughter Olivia, 16 and son George, 7. Both have been tested for heart conditions, but are healthy.