A mother has spoken movingly about her ‘feisty’ son who died cradled in her arms at five-months-old from premature birth complications.
Northumberland baby Frankie Foster was born weighing just 565g – little more than a bag of pasta – at 24 weeks and one day on October 22, 2019, at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary. Over the coming weeks he underwent three life saving operations and 12 blood and plasma transfusions as he valiantly fought for his life.
Eventually his little body could take no more, and he died peacefully on April 7, 2020, as his mother, Leigh Swithenbank, gently held him on her chest after his health deteriorated and doctors turned off his ventilator. Now Leigh, 31, who is also mother to Cory, 11, and Harry, nine, has spoken movingly about her youngest child and his courageous battle for survival.
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“It was a privilege, even for a short time, to have had Frankie in our lives," she said. “The thing I remember with most pleasure is when all four of us were able to be together at the hospital, reading a book to Frankie or telling him what we had been up to.
“He brought a lot of happiness to us all. But he was a feisty little bugger!
"The nurses always said that for someone so small he was really determined. He didn’t like having his blood taken or needles being stuck into him. He’d fight back."
Sadly, the time came when Frankie, who was deaf, visually impaired and suffering from a host of health issues, was no longer able to battle on. But whilst the little Trojan is gone, he is definitely not forgotten.
His family has helped raise nearly £1,500 in his name for the Newcastle -based Tiny Lives Trust which supported Leigh and her two sons throughout Frankie’s short life.
Cory and Harry completed the 2021 Junior Great North Run in their brother’s memory and have just heard they have places for this year’s event too. And now Cory and Harry’s football club, New Fordley Juniors, have added the Tiny Lives logo to all their teams’ new football strips in appreciation of the work the charity did in helping support the family through this traumatic period.
The club, which plays out of Annitsford in North Tyneside, has also pledged to help raise money to support the organisation, which is dedicated to helping neonatal families at the RVI.
Club chairman Andrew Purvis, said: "We have seen the struggle that Leigh, Cory and Harry had and the outstanding help they got from Tiny Lives. We were looking for a local charity to support, and given we are a junior football club it was the perfect match.
"Every strip and the training kit now has the Tiny Lives logo on, and every week we get people asking what it means. With 23 teams we are helping to spread the word. As a charity ourselves, we know how hard it is to keep things going."
Louise Carroll, Tiny Lives' community and events fundraiser, added: "It's such a lovely gesture from New Fordley, getting Tiny Lives out there and also honouring the memory of such a brave little boy as Frankie, especially when his two big brothers play for the club."
Leigh, who lives in Seaton Delaval and works in customer service for Northumberland Specialist Surfacing in Cramlington, said that, but for Tiny Lives, she would not have been able to cope following Frankie’s premature birth.
She recalled: “I wasn’t coping mentally. But Tiny Lives provided me with a psychologist who saw we twice a week in the beginning. I had very bad Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was mentally and physically all over the place.
“Four days after Frankie’s birth I was readmitted to hospital suffering from postnatal psychosis. Tiny Lives helped get me back on an even keel."
It was hardly surprising that Leigh was in such a state. Everything had been progressing as normal with her pregnancy. But she was out walking her dogs when she began suffering stomach pains and was rushed to the RVI.
She endured an agonising six day labour before Frankie was born and immediately moved to the RVI’s Neonatal Unit.
Leigh said: “Frankie was so small he was translucent. I was told he was unlikely to make it, but Frankie kept going."
He had just reached the size of a full-term baby when he passed away.
Leigh said: “It was a couple of days before he died that the consultant took me aside and told me he only had a short while left. It was obvious those last three or four days that it was the end.
“It was just past midnight on April 7 that the ventilator was turned off and Frankie was laid on my chest. He fought on for a few hours, breathing on his own.
"I feel very lucky that we got to spend that time together and make our own memories. I feel for those people who have still births and don’t get that chance."
Tiny Lives provided the family with memory packs. “We did foot and hand prints together and collected other memories," Leigh explained.
“It was a very difficult time for Cory and Harry. Their lives were turned upside down. Cory especially struggled. He was nine at the time and understood more than Harry, who was only seven.
“Tiny Lives provided the boys with special sibling packs which explained from a child’s point of view what was happening with Frankie.
“We were all given bereavement counselling when Frankie passed away. It was an awful time. The pain was unbearable, and knowing what the boys were going through was terrible."
She is full of praise for New Fordley Juniors FC for giving its support to Tiny Lives.
“It’s lovely that the team is helping raise awareness about Tiny Lives. They’ve given so much to us and it’s important we give back to them in whatever way we can."
Despite only being in this world a short time, nearly two years after his death Leigh said Frankie has positively changed her life.
“He massively changed me as a person. He has made me more aware of what is important. If it wasn’t for Frankie, I wouldn’t be making the most of my life, I’d be plodding on still. Frankie has given us all a strength we didn’t know we had."
