The Neonatal Trust on Hand to Farewell Ben Sigmund

8 April 2016.

The Neonatal Trust on Hand to Farewell Ben Sigmund

Wellington Phoenix fan favourite and Neonatal Trust Ambassador Ben Sigmund will play his last game of professional football on Sunday 10th April.

Neil O’Styke of The Neonatal Trust said “The Neonatal Trust are privileged to be present to say thanks to Ben as he moves on to the next stage of life with his ‘Fully Committed’ People development company”

O’Styke added “our huge thanks go to Ben & Deanna Sigmund, The Wellington Phoenix and Westpac Stadium for allowing us to collect and raise awareness at Bens last game”.

The support of Ben and Deanna for The Neonatal Trust comes from the very early arrival of son Cameron, who arrived 16 weeks early at only 24 weeks. He arrived weighing just 715 grams. This stressful part of their life will be covered in Bens forthcoming book ‘Fully Committed’ which is due out in May.

O’Styke noted that “Since experiencing their neonatal journey, Deanna and Ben Sigmund have been incredible supporters in a number of different ways. From help with collections, sorting knitted items, media work for promotions - you name it, a request for help was never too much hassle. The Neonatal Trust are incredibly grateful for this wonderful support.”

Their support continues and Deanna and Ben are very kindly donating $1.00 from each 'Fully Committed' book sold to The Neonatal Trust. http://www.bensigmund.co.nz/the-ben-sigmund-story/

“Raising awareness of the incidence of neonatal care is a key focus of ours. Many people are astounded when they learn 5,000 babies require specialist care in New Zealand each year”.

Locally, EVERY YEAR over 1,000 babies go through the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Wellington hospital and over 400 through the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) in Lower Hutt hospital.

Through the support of Ben, the Wellington Phoenix and Westpac Stadium, The Neonatal Trust will be present at Wellington Stadium on Sunday with:

• Fliers to hand out to raise awareness of neonatal care and provide an insight through Ben and Deanna Sigmunds story. A PDF of this can be seen here: https://goo.gl/3Fk0GM
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• Volunteers, including neonatal unit graduates, neonatal parents and also neonatal nurses, will be present and collecting donations
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• The Neonatal Trusts two unique 'Incubator donation boxes' will be present. You can see an image of these, and read about the story of their conversion here: https://goo.gl/HuVdyl
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O’Styke says many New Zealanders are personally affected, or have friends and family, who have experienced premature births or had a sick baby require specialist care.

“It’s an issue which impacts a significant amount of our population, and we are very keen to do more for the families going through a stressful journey filled with much anxiety”.

ENDS

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