Our story
Founded from our own experience
Noah’s Star was founded as a result of founder, Jo-Anne’s, personal experiences. In July 2015, Jo-Anne’s twin sons, Oscar and Noah, were born at just 25 weeks gestation. Sadly, Noah only lived for 30 hours and at only three days old, his brother Oscar suffered a stroke which led to bleeding on both sides of his brain. Thus, Oscar has cerebral palsy and, due to his prematurity, also has chronic lung disease. Even during this extremely difficult and emotional time, Jo-Anne was determined that Noah’s life would matter, and to make a difference to other families, who have had to overcome the hurdles of premature birth.
Our challenges as a family
When the twins were born, the family was faced with many challenges, one of which related to the care of their 9 year old daughter, Daisy, and juggling her needs whilst caring for newborn Oscar and coping with the loss of Noah. The requirement for Oscar to be at the hospital meant that Daisy also spent many hours there, and Jo-Anne identified a need for a service that could reduce some of the challenges for parents in similar situations.
Neonatal support for families means so much to Jo and her family.
At 12 weeks old Oscar left the hospital and was able to come home. Jo-Anne was determined that Noah’s short life would mean so much and go on to make a positive difference for other families for many years to come.
Ultimately in 2017, Noah’s Star was founded to provide support to families of sick and premature babies, with a focus on sibling care; the provision Jo-Anne knew would benefit so many families.
The need for sibling support realised
With Oscar’s health so compromised, needing around the clock care, Jo-Anne needed to be at the neonatal unit taking care of him as much as possible, but she also needed to take care of her older child at the same time. Ultimately this meant bringing her other child to the hospital with her most of the time, with a child as young as 9 having to spend hours waiting around on the ward and in hospital corridors. Jo-Anne knew this wasn’t ideal, but there were no provisions for her older child to be looked after. Jo-Anne could see there was a need for a sibling support service which would help alleviate at least one of the many pressures felt by parents and carers of babies in the neonatal unit.
