Aimee - our special Ambassador

10 Downing Street

On Wednesday 2nd July I took a trip down to London to go to a reception
at 10 Downing Street to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS.
I received the invitation the week before. At first I thought the whole
thing was a hoax! The following day representative from the NHS Trust
in which I am training confirmed that they had chosen to invite me
because of my high standard of work in college and because of my
work as the charity ambassador.

So off I went to London to the reception. As I wasn’t allowed a guest I
entered Number 10 alone which was a little daunting at first! I was greeted
with a drink and appetisers. The first hour gave me the opportunity to go
round and talk to the other NHS staff that had been invited to the reception.
Everyone I spoke to had years of experience of working within the NHS
behind them. So they where quite interested when they heard my story of
why I was attending that day. Then speeches from different members of
the government began and Gordon Brown did his speech and couldn’t
praise the staff of the NHS enough for all their hard work.

The day was a brilliant experience which I will never forgot. Even though I didn’t get the chance to meet Gordon Brown in person it was still a pleasure to be invited to the event.

Aimee suffered burn injuries at a young age. She is now 16 years old and has become an Ambassador for the Children's Burns Foundation. This is her story.

When I was two years old I fell into a bath a hot water and sustained 80% burns and I was treated at Booth Hall Children’s Hospital. Whilst going through the acute treatment after my accident I had numerous operations, mostly skin grafts, to make me as comfortable as possible. Since then I have frequently needed operations to release scar tissue in order for me to be able to move properly without any restrictions. I have also needed tissue expanders, which are like little balloons which stretch the skin, in my abdomen to stretch the unscarred skin so the surgeons could use the skin on another part of my body. I am still undergoing operations and will continue to do so until I stop growing. This is because as I am growing the scarred tissue isn’t growing as fast, which restricts my movement and makes me really uncomfortable. All of my past operations and treatments have all taken place at Booth Hall Children's Hospital but now I am older my future surgery will take place at Wythenshawe Hospital.

I started going to Burns Camp at six years of age and last summer was my final year as I am now too old. However, I will be attending the newly established young adult camp this May. Camp helped me to get back my confidence and self esteem, meaning I could go into school and mix with all the other children without me always thinking my scars were going to get in the way.

I’m now at Bury College doing a Btec National Diploma in Health and Social Care and doing placements within Fairfield General and North Manchester General Hospitals. I hope to go on to university to complete training as a nurse and want to specialise in paediatrics burns and scalds. This is because I want to give something back for all the support and treatment I received while recovering and getting on with the rest of my life. Hopefully in a few years I will become a leader at the Children’s Burns Camp to pass on the support I received while at there.

I was pleased to be invited to ask to be an ambassador for the Children’s Burns Foundation because this is another way I can give something back. I think that children in the future would benefit from the Foundation not only funding camp programmes but also other activities so that campers get to meet up more often than once a year.