Primeraly this site is dedicated to raising money and awareness for the charity 'cuddles. The charity Cuddles (Care Understanding Devotion to Duty for Lives Extremely Small) was established in April 1984 and has been operational ever since.

It is Cuddles' aim to support the Special Care Baby Unit, (SCBU), in Glan Clwyd Hospital. This they manage in a number of ways;

There are several families in the North Wales area whose babies have been cared for in the Special Care Baby Unit at Glan Clwyd Hospital. They have benefited enormously from the dedicated work carried out by Cuddles. The group give thier time voluntary and their hard work and commitment over the years can only be descibed as second to none.

Cuddles is also a support group for the parents of the babies in SCBU. Having been one of the parents whose baby was in the SCBU ward then we know all to well how that feels. There is a list of endless test and, what feels like longer periods of time waiting for the results, followed by the next step, whatever that may be. After a period of time the strain can tell, hence the need for support from people who understand the difficulties being faced. After a period of time our baby boy was discharged home and he continues to progress in the world as any other baby boy his age should do. For us the immediate anxiety of having a baby in the SCBU is over but the work done there by the staff and the team at 'Cuddles' is defiantly not. It was at this point we decided to do what we could to raise money for and awareness of 'Cuddles'. It was therefore a direct result that we set up . The purpose of this is to create a medium to promote the efforts and events, which directly result in money and awareness for Cuddles. Every body who contributes to the work for Cuddles will be featured on the site and through other areas of the media.

Since 'cuddles' was established 1984, nearly £250,000.00 has been raised by the group. This has been achieved largely through the dedication of supporters and the generosity of the public from donations, fundraising and the hire of the Bouncy Castle.

Items bought for the unit

Variuos array of items have been purchased for the unit. These items include, but are not limited to a washing machine, heart monitor, suction machine, heart rate monitor, camera, video camera, pram, toys, booklets printed about cuddles, electric breast pumps, humidifier, dryer, phototherapy unit, oximeter, breast pump, flow driver, guest bed, scan module trolley, ventilator, pulse oximeter, syringe pump, ultrasound scanner, incubater and a bouncy castle(which can be hired from Cuddles).

Help for parents to visit their children

Over the years Cuddles has also been able to provide financial assitance to the parents who have found it difficult to visit. When you consider that some babies may stay in the unit for more than 3 months then day to day visiting take on a huge logisitcal and financial burden. To date Cuddles have given out almost £ 22,000 for this purpose alone.

On 29th March 2000, the Cuddles Chairman (Mr F Jones) and representatives of the Cuddles Team presented Dr. Stuchfield and staff on the unit with a new incubator which was purchased at a cost of approximately £13,750.The incubator was a welcome addition and is a valuable piece of equipment to enables the doctors and nurses on the unit to make decisions on how best to allocate resources for the care of the babies

In February 1999, Cuddles and representatives of the League of Friends presented Dr. Stuchfield and staff on the unit with a new high tech ultra sound scanner which was purchased as a joint venture between the two groups at a cost of approximately £65,000.The scanner is a very valuable diagnostic aid to have in the unit and enables doctors and nurses to make decisions vital to the care of the babies

How you can help

Your never to young to start. Then only five years old, David Sturgess read about Cuddles in his local paper and decided that he wanted to do something to help. David undertook a sponsored walk up Snowdon and mananged to raise £125. A major achivemnt by any standards!

An evening of folding and packing envelopes for sending out the Newsletter and raffle tickets.Helping doesn't have to be serious! Everbody meets up at 8pm on the last Wednesday of every month, (except December), in the meeting room of the Childrens Out-patient Department at the Hospital. Please feel free to come along, Cuddles are always looking for new members.