For two-year-old Isabella, life hasn't been easy. However, some lads are going out of their way to help send her to Disney World Florida so that she has memories that aren't restricted to being stuck in hospital.
She was born in December 2014, but had no right ventricle in her heart (the chamber that pumps blood to the lungs).
Bella in 2014
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Sadly, this is a life-limiting disease. She had to have open heart surgery at just five-days-old. Unfortunately she then had a cardiac arrest at seven days old, requiring a further operation/heart massage and another open heart procedure two days later.
At six weeks, she had surgery to clean a blood infection in her chest and rewire her sternum - the blood infection caused the chest wires to snap, breaking her little ribs. All before she was even two months old.
The next stage is planned at around 4/5 years old, which should see her through until she needs another new heart later in life.
Bella in 2014
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Luckily, there's some good in this world.
Dean Govier, 34, and his colleagues at Barrington James (a specialist recruitment company) got wind of her story and decided that they had to help. He told TheLADbible: "I raise money for Children with Cancer UK and have done so for years.
"One of my colleagues knew that I had a soft spot for children's charities and asked me if we could consider helping a little girl that his friend was raising money for. Nick (my colleague) pointed me in the direction of Isabella's Instagram feed and I literally fell in love with her.
"The photos of Bella looking down at her little scar broke my heart. I told my board of directors that we needed to help and they were immediately on-board.
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"I tried to present this idea to my entire sales floor but couldn't for crying - I still struggle to speak to the mum over the phone and have to hide back the tears."
Bella in 2014
They haven't been messing about at all. The whole company (who are our collective LADs of the Week) have done pretty much everything you could possibly think of to try and raise enough money for this little girl and her family to get to Disney World Florida.
The company figuring out how to help
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This is just some of the things the company is doing under the umbrella-term 'BJ Has A Heart':
- Last in to the office every day has to donate
- First to leave the office every day has to donate
- 'Beer Bear' - a 'bear' that walks around the office giving out beers for donations
- Colour of the day - if you're not wearing an item of that colour, you have to donate
- Ice bucket challenge
Ice bucket challenge
- Invited a barber in to cut hair for staff (£20 per cut to Bella's campaign)
- Inter-office bets - losers to wear make-up or silly clothes
LADS wearing make-up as a forfeit
- Global Disney Day - £5 for fancy dress
- Cake sale
- Office Jukebox in New York - $1 a song
- One of the managers shaved his beard for a donation
- Nerf Gun challenge
Nerf Gun challenge. Credit: Supplied
- A Pro Evo competition
- A poker tournament (in two weeks time)
The CEO, Dan Barrington, owns a Villa in Orlando and has donated use of it for the October half term.
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What amazing LADS. When asked how it feel to help this family, Dean said: "It's the best feeling in the world. Knowing you're changing peoples lives for the better is an incredible feeling.
"Every kid's dream is to go to Disney World, and with our help we can make this dream come true. We're meetin Bella and her family on April 3rd. They're coming down to meet the troops plus we'll be booking their flights."
Bella now
How amazing is this company?!
Bella's mum, Bex, told TheLADbible: "Our whole family are completely overwhelmed by the amount of effort, time & generosity, that has gone into the 'BJ has a Heart' fundraising for us.
"Isabella put our whole lives into perspective and making memories are so important to us.
Bex and Bella
"We honestly could never thank Barrington James enough for making this amazing memory happen. The children have no idea yet that we are going to Disney World Orlando, but it will 100% be a life long memory for them and we will be forever grateful for that. We will also make sure they are aware of all the amazing people involved in this once in a life time Trip.
"Isabella is recovering perfectly since her last open heart surgery in September and her heart appointments have gone from every three months to six months. We are hoping everything continues to go smoothly until her next planned open heart surgery in a few years."
Absolute LADS.
If you want to help send this awesome family to Disney Land, dig deep. Let's get some awesome memories made for this family who've been through so much.
You can donate here or follow Bella's story on Instagram here.
We want to showcase YOUR stories. What are you doing to benefit the community? Is your mate doing something awesome for someone else? Even if you're just helping your next door neighbour in the cold winter months - we want to know about it. Email us with your story - [email protected] and you could be featured next week.
Topics: Lad of the week, Fundraising, Disneyland, Disney World, Charity, Cancer