Charity cycle underway to remember toddler who died days after complaining of 'tummy ache'
Tributes have been left by the family of a three-year-old boy from Taunton who died suddenly - just 48 hours after complaining of a tummy ache.Jude Chinn was described as a "happy, healthy, smiley, wonderful, caring little boy" by his mum before he unexpectedly passed away at Bristol Children's Hospital on June 5 last year.Jude went to bed happy and healthy two days after face timing his granddad and uncle for their birthdays, but after a night of stomach pains and vomiting, he was taken to Musgrove Park Hospital.Scans revealed that the three-year-old's bowel had become twisted and, despite undergoing emergency surgery before being rushed to Bristol for further treatment, doctors were unable to save him.He passed away in Bristol Children's Hospital.
Laura Chinn, Jude's mum, said: "He was a happy, healthy, smiley, wonderful, caring little boy. He loved his little brothers who are six and one."He was fine, had no underlying health conditions or anything, then went to bed having just Facetimed his granddad and uncle."An hour later he was complaining of a tummy ache and was sick throughout the night."In the morning he was quite unresponsive, drifting in and out. We rang for help and he was rushed into Musgrove Park hospital where they tried to assess what was going on."She added: "Initially they thought it was diabetes until they scanned his abdominal and ruled that out."They found there was loads of fluid in there that shouldn’t be there and rushed him into surgery where they had to cut out part of his bowel as it had died off."They did the surgery at Musgrove, before sending him to Bristol Children’s Hospital where he received the care that he needed."Unfortunately, he was fighting for his life for 24 hours on life support and ventilators before he slipped away."At that point, our world fell apart."
The family have praised the support and attention they received from Bristol Children's Hospital, calling the service "incredible".Laura added: "We were just blown away by the care and compassion shown from every single member of staff."It was the worst time of our lives, but each member of staff came in with such positivity and energy, it gave us hope that everything would be normal and alright."That is what inspired us to want to give back."Jude's dad, Richard Chinn added: "I said to the staff as we were leaving that we’re going to raise as much money as possible because anybody in our situation deserves that."
A mix of the grief of losing a child and the compassion shown by hospital staff led to the idea of a charity cycle to remember Jude.A team of 18 people are planning to complete the 900-mile trip from John O'Groats to Land's End in just nine days in his memory.This averages 100 miles a day, and they hope that family and friends can surround them at the finishing line.Richard said: "We came home and within a couple of weeks we’d discussed with a few friends what we wanted to do."We wanted to do something that would be hard work, really difficult and take a lot of dedication, not fun."Three or four of us came up with the idea to cycle from John O’Groats to Land’s End, and it caught fire from there.The team set up an initial target of £1,250, but soon changed it to £10,000 - which they raised in just 48 hours. By New Years Eve, the fundraiser had surpassed £20,000."We don’t have a target in mind, we just want to keep raising as much money as possible.""It goes a long way to helping other families who are in our situation to receive great care and support in the hospital and after as well."As of Monday, February 8, the JustGiving page had more than £47,400 raised by 2,851 supporters.Richard says it will be an emotional time, especially when his six-year-old son joins the final six mile leg of the journey to Land's End.The team of 18 comprises of people from age 35 to people over 50, a team which snowballed from just a handful of people at the beginning of the process - and the team would have continued to grow if Richard hadn't stepped in. "Within a couple of weeks, we had to cap the numbers at 18 as it would become a logistical nightmare otherwise."We’re all training regularly and updating each other on our WhatsApp group and giving each other inspiration."