A FAMILY is showing its gratitude to the tireless people who were there in their infant daughter’s time of need by launching a fundraising campaign.

Lydia Lock spent the best part of the first 12 weeks of her life at Basingstoke hospital after being unable to feed due to severe reflux and an inability to suck after she was born in November last year.

During this time, Lydia, along with mum Sarah, dad Ryan and older brother Charlie, five, were supported by the team at the hospital with the paediatric dieticians working tirelessly to try find a cause for her poor feeding and a way around it, drawing up a plan to suit her weight and pushed Lydia’s boundaries to get her drinking for herself.

For a short while, she was fed on a pump which continuously drip-fed her over a 20-hour period while it was also found at the hospital that Lydia had a hole in her heart.

This was deemed not to be the cause of her poor feeding, but did raise the possibility of open-heart surgery.

Now, though the true cause of the issue was never found, aged nine months, Lydia is a happy, healthy child and her family want to raise money for the paediatric dieticians at the hospital.

Sarah added: “We had just moved to Basingstoke from Southampton and our whole world was turned upside down.

“We wouldn’t have stayed the same people if it wasn’t for the hospital staff. Even at their busiest, we never felt like we were a burden.”

The aim is to buy weighing scales and a laptop, to allow a paediatric dietician to perform home visits, and a batch of recipe books to give to families of children with dietary issues.

The family hope the fundraising will cut down the amount of time that parents have to wait for their children to be assessed which currently stands at up to eight months.

The idea has come in the build up to Lydia’s christening this November.

Sarah added: “We thought, she doesn’t want for anything so we were going to ask for donations [to the hospital] from family and friends, but I thought why stop there? We want to get as many donations as we can.

“The dieticians don’t get the credit they deserve so the money will go towards the paediatric dietician department.”

To cap off their relationship with the hospital, the family has invited key members of staff in Lydia’s treatment to her christening.

To donate, go to justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lydia-lock.