About us
Noah’s Star is a registered charity (1193043). They support the whole family when their baby is born premature or sick or their child is admitted to hospital. Their core service offers sibling support to families which enables parents to spend quality time with their sick and premature babies and children whilst they care for the siblings.
Noah’s Star runs a sibling support group at Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) and hospitals across the West Midlands, providing an area for children to play, and activities to occupy them whilst their parents spend time with their poorly baby or child.
The charity has grown the support offered to families to include peer mentoring, counselling, memory making activities and community support (when a family is discharge from the hospital).
Why Noah’s Star?
Noah’s Star was founded because of the founders, 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.
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.
Noah’s Star provides a safe and fun place for siblings of sick and premature babies to play, as well as reassurance to parents, allowing them to spend the time required with their newborn. In addition to the free sibling support service, Noah’s Star volunteers provide support to parents in the form of a person to talk to, or simply bring a cup of tea to those unable to leave their baby.
Our Story
Learn more about what drives us at Noah’s Star, why it is so personal to us and what spurs us on to make Noah’s Star the best it can possibly be.
Our Team
Learn more about our fantastic team, who we are, and how we help. The team is wide and varied with full-time support from a wide range of volunteers.
What we do
We provide a variety of different services to help support you and your family. Learn more about our services and how we can take the pressure off your shoulders at such a difficult time.
