Our Story

"A person's a person no matter how small" Dr. Seuss

Our Family

My name is Maddie and NICU Cheer is my passion project that came about after my husband Aaron and I had a premature baby in 2016 and we saw a need for something that could brighten a NICU parent’s day. 

We have two wonderful kids. Lillian is our rainbow baby who was born full term in 2014 + Ashton who was born prematurely at 30 weeks in 2016.  They are the light of our lives.  Lily is in school now and Ashton is attending a specialist daycare where he's thriving. He still has ongoing hospital and specialist visits with multiple departments across two hospitals as we strive to get a diagnosis for his extreme fatigue, and checks ups on his laryngomalacia, subglottic stenosis, brain bleeds, innocent heart murmur and more. He is so happy despite it all and cracks us up daily with his mischievous ways. 

My wonderfully supportive husband Aaron is a  news photographer and we are so lucky to have him. It is such a cliché, but he truly is our rock and none of this would be possible without him.  In my life pre-children I worked as a lawyer and it was always my honour to work for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities of Queensland and Victoria, but after Ashton’s birth his appointments kept me too busy for the first 3+ years to return to traditional work, so I started NICU Cheer and as it's grown so has Ashton and  now it has been become not only my passion, but my full-time role - albeit for no pay. It's super cheesy, but I really just do feel like it is my calling and I couldn't love bringing cheer to other NICU families any more.

We have now expanded to deliver to all 5 major NICUs in Melbourne + we hope to deliver on more days of the year and aiming for our first ever Valentines Day and Easter deliveries in 2021!

"Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life!"

Our aim

To bring some cheer on special days for parents of premature/sick babies in the NICU + Special Care Nursery & to let them know they're

not alone on this journey.

Maddie the NICU Cheer Founder hand drew our logo based on a picture of Ashton in the NICU.

Future plans include bringing more cheer on more days and starting deliveries for Valentines & Easter in 2021 + spreading the cheer to more NICUs

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Special days like Christmas can be a tough time of year for some and that is particularly so for families who have a baby or babies in a NICU.  Our first year after having Ashton I remember thinking about all the parents in the NICU over Christmas and wishing I could let them know they’re not alone on this journey - and so the idea for NICU Cheer was born.

The following year in 2017 I started my NICU Cheer campaign putting out the call for donations of goods. At first I was just hoping for enough to fill a hamper to go in the parent’s break out room, but I received so many wonderful donations from family, friends, strangers and obliging companies that I was able to put together 61 gift bags (one for every cot at the Mercy NICU/SCN) as well as giant hampers for the parent and staff rooms.

By 2018 we had streamlined the collection process and refined what goes into the bags too. The 2019 bags were the best yet as we were fortunate enough to receive some lovely corporate donations and we delivered 188 bags to 3 major NICUs that Christmas.

In 2020 we were going to do our first ever Mother's Day delivery, but Covid-19 had other plans.. but with some careful planning, protocols in place and sadly no volunteers we were able to make our inaugural Father's Day delivery of 222 bags for Dads in the NICUs right across Melbourne in 2020.

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Aiming to add Valentines and Easter next year too.

Delivering these little bags of treats is our way of giving back to the hospital and the staff who saved our son and also our way to pay it forward and hopefully bring some cheer to others who are where we have been. We know what it's like to be them and so if we can bring even a little joy or cheer up one parent each year we have accomplished our mission.

If you donate to NICU Cheer or have helped us in any way we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for enabling us to spread some cheer.

In 2020 we expanded to our 4th hospital and now deliver 222 bags every delivery. In the future we hope to spread NICU Cheer to even more hospitals - watch this space.

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Love + big hugs

Maddie,

Founder NICU Cheer

xox

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Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart!

Winnie The Pooh by A.A.Milne