Sheffield mum whose daughter, 12, was burnt in fire pit explosion at sleepover fundraises for hospital

In September, 12-year-old Freya Bedford was rushed into Sheffield Children’s Hospital after suffering serious burns at a friend’s birthday sleepover. In what would be any parent’s nightmare, on shift at the time was her mum, Amey, who is a diagnostic radiographer at the hospital.

She explains: “They had a small fire pit and an adult poured liquid accelerant onto the fire. It exploded and set Freya alight.

“I was on shift when Freya came in, it was my worst nightmare to see my own child come through. She came into the Emergency Department and was very quickly given pain relief.”

Freya suffered burns on both lower legs, her hands and on her face. Her hand was dressed, and then shortly after she was moved up to the ward to be cared for by the specialist burns team, made up of specialist surgeons and support staff.

Mum Amey continues: “The care of the Burns Service was amazing, it was such a traumatic time for us and her, but the staff made us feel so reassured about her recovery.

“They took care of all of us as a family and I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone involved from physios, occupational therapists, nurses, doctors, dieticians, psychologists and play therapists.

“I can only be grateful that we had such amazing services. Freya loved the gas and air at dressing changes, as well as going in the specialist bath, which she named the flying bath. She loved seeing her favourite nurses at dressing changes, as well as visiting all of mummy’s colleagues at X-ray.

“Freya has been absolutely amazing, her resilience blows me away every day. She sees the positivity in everything and has even discussed having tattoos on her scars in the future.”

To say thank you for the care Freya received, her family and friends will be taking on Theo’s Glow In The Park, a fun run after dark in Endcliffe Park on December 13 where participants are encouraged to glow up with glow sticks, fairy lights and Christmas gear. So far, over 500 supporters of Sheffield Children’s have signed up to make a difference in the dark. In fact, Freya has been invited to sound the airhorn to get the race underway at 7.30pm on the night.

Since 2017, the event has raised over £135,000 for The Children’s Hospital Charity.

Amey said: “We’ve never taken part before but we’ve always wanted to. We thought it would be a lovely thing to do with everyone who have supported us so much through this, and we hope to raise £1,000.

“I have worked at Sheffield Children’s for 18 years and I love how our patients make me laugh and smile every single day.

“I’d like to say a special thank you to everyone who has supported such an amazing charity. We are so lucky to have specialist paediatric treatment in Sheffield and we want to do everything we can to make it even better.”