Newcastle landmarks shine blue to raise awareness of rare condition affecting twin babies
Famous Newcastle landmarks will shine their lights blue on Wednesday night thanks to a fundraising mum from Ashington.
Lindsey Weightman sadly lost her baby Summer at 25 weeks gestation after a traumatising battle with TTTS (twin-to- twin transfusion syndrome).
Lindsey has encouraged famous local landmarks to light up blue on TTTSAwareness Day on Wednesday 7th December, to raise money for Tamba's (The Twins and Multiple Births Association) TTTS Registry.
The landmarks include the Tyne Bridge, Newcastle College, the Millennium Bridge in Gateshead and the Berwick Border Bridge.
Lindsey is inviting families who want to support her to meet on the Newcastle side of the Millennium Bridge at 6.30pm on Wednesday.
Sadly Summer passed away on 19th June, as her share of the placenta was inadequate to sustain her life. However her sister Harper survived and was born two months premature on 13th August 2016. She spent three weeks in a special care baby unit before being allowed home to mum and dad.
Multiple births charity Tamba has partnered with nine fetal medicine centres in the UK to set up the TTTS Registry. Leading clinicians are now entering data into the Registry about families who are diagnosed with the devastating condition.
The Registry includes details such as the gestational age at diagnosis and the weight of the babies and their outcomes, so doctors can see what the best practices are and why.
It can also be used by doctors to compare cases, so they can see how other twins in similar situations were treated and what happened to them.
It's hoped the data collected from the TTTS Registry will help improve TTTSoutcomes in future and save more families like Lindsey's from its life-changing effects.
What is twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS)?
TTTS arises because there are blood vessels within and on the surface of the shared placenta connecting both twins.
Usually, these vessels allow blood to flow evenly between the babies, but in TTTS the blood flow is unbalanced, resulting in a ‘donor’ twin donating blood through the placenta to a ‘recipient’ twin.
Who does TTTS affect?
Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) occurs in about 10-15% of identical twins who share a placenta (monochorionic twins). It can appear at any time during pregnancy, but most commonly before 24 weeks gestation.
TTTS can also develop in triplet or higher order pregnancies that include monochorionic twins.
To support Lindsey's fundraising for Tamba's TTTS Registry visit: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Lindsey-Weightman