Family First Jersey

06/02/2026

Off-island medical care doesn’t just mean a flight to the UK.

It means finding somewhere to sleep near a hospital.
It means paying for food every day while you’re away from home.
It means getting from place to place when you don’t know the area and don’t know how long you’ll be there.

When a family is told their child needs specialist care off island, it often happens fast.

Flights are booked at short notice. Bags are packed quickly. Normal routines stop.

One of the practical ways we help is by sourcing funding from partner charities to cover the extra costs that come with that situation like,

Accommodation close to the hospital,
Food while parents are staying away from home,
And transport between where they are staying and where their child is being treated.

This support is usually arranged while families are getting ready to travel, or shortly after they arrive, so they are not trying to solve everyday problems on top of medical decisions for their children.

When the basics are taken care of, parents can focus on the one thing that actually matters in that moment,

Being there for their child.

03/02/2026

🧡 A huge thank you to Peter Dolbel 🧡

We’re incredibly grateful to Peter for choosing to fundraise for Family First by taking on an amazing personal challenge — stepping into the boxing ring for the very first time! 🥊

As the husband of our CEO, Cheryl, Peter has seen first-hand the difference this charity makes to families, and we think it’s truly inspiring that he’s decided to support us in such a bold (and brave!) way.

Training for a boxing match is no small feat, especially when it’s completely new and we’re so proud of him for doing this to raise vital funds for our work.

Good luck, Peter — we’ll all be cheering you on! 👏

If you’d like to support Peter and help him reach his fundraising goal, please click the link below 👇

🔗 https://jerseygiving.je/sponsor/activity/white-collar-boxing-2026/peter-dolbel

Disclaimer: Peter is fundraising for Family First in a personal capacity.

30/01/2026

100km in under 7 hours. Raising £1,445 for our charity.

Earlier this month Ben Gurney rowed an incredible 100 kilometres indoors, breaking the British record and placing himself 2nd best in the world.

He didn’t just do this for himself either, he generously decided to turn this into a fundraiser for our charity and raised more than 200% of his original goal along the way.

This is such a substantial achievement and we feel so grateful to have been a part of it.

What we find most inspiring is what his motivation was.

It's what it took to keep him going when the excitement faded and the hardest hours were still ahead of him. When the goal stopped being about performance and started being about his purpose.

Ben trained for months, not just to test himself, but to put that effort behind something that would really change the lives of the families in his community.

That kind of effort is definitely worth reflecting on.

Thank you Ben!

28/01/2026

We are so incredibly grateful to Will for choosing to fundraise for Family First by taking part in the Ironman 70.3 challenge 🧡💪

We’re so glad to hear that the family are doing well, and we really appreciate Will choosing to support our charity. His efforts will make a real difference to the families we support who need help during off-island medical treatment.

If you’d like to support Will, you can donate or share his fundraising page here:
👇 https://jerseygiving.je/sponsor/activity/ironman-70-3-weymouth/will-jack-robinson
Thank you, Will, from all of us at Family First 🧡

I am going to do something this year that I did not think I would ever do. Last year was an unusual but beautiful year, full of moments of elation as well as some significant challenges. When Dean arrived, he was born with a rare health condition—something I do not wish to discuss in detail on soc...

23/01/2026

It’s usually said as a matter of fact.
“You need to travel to the UK to get your child treatment.”

The room doesn’t change, but everything else does.

All of a sudden you can’t concentrate on anything. You ask about dates, flights, paperwork, questions that don’t have answers yet.

For Jersey families, this moment carries a specific weight. Jersey is where their whole support system and life is. Their child’s care is away from everything they know.

Unsure how long they’ll be away, who will stay behind or what needs organizing before tomorrow even starts.

Bags need packing for reasons no one planned for, not to mention the financial side of everything.

Because when your child is sick, the whole world stops.

And many families don’t realize support for this difficult time exists.

Knowing it’s there can make all the difference.

16/01/2026

“Family First has been an invaluable support for our family

“I’m not sure how we would have coped without them.”

When this family found themselves facing a situation that felt overwhelming, they didn’t have the space or strength to figure everything out alone.

That’s when they reached out to us at Family First.

Through steady guidance and a deep sense of understanding, the team helped turn an incredibly stressful situation into something manageable.

Not by rushing or fixing everything at once but by walking alongside the family, helping them navigate decisions, emotions, and the weight of it all.

That kind of support can change everything.

If you’re able to help, your donation allows Family First to keep offering calm, compassionate support to families when they need it most without pressure, without judgement, and without them feeling alone.

Today, this family looks back with gratitude, knowing they had someone in their corner during one of the hardest chapters of their lives.

A small contribution can make a very real difference for the next family who needs that same support, we’ve shared the link in the comments.

Thank you as always to The Grace Crocker Family Support Foundation and Friends of the Jersey Neonatal Unit and Jersey Children's Charity for their incredible financial contributions to the families supported by Family First.

12/01/2026

💙 A huge thank you to Ports of Jersey 💙

We’re incredibly grateful to Ports of Jersey for funding recent improvements to our website, helping us better support families when they need us most.

These updates include a Meet the Team page, so families can see who they’re speaking to when they get in touch, and a Testimonials page where some of our amazing families have shared their stories and experiences.

Asking for help can be really hard. We hope that reading about other families’ journeys will encourage those whose child is ill and needs off-island support to reach out and know they’re not alone.

Thank you again to Ports of Jersey for funding this project, and to IOP for making the website changes. We’re so grateful for your support 💙

👉 To view our website or find out more about what we do, please click the link below.

We provide support to families of sick children and health professionals in Jersey. Learn about Family First and the work we do in Jersey.

12/01/2026

🌼 We’re Hiring – Family Support & Admin Assistant 🌼
£18 per hour | 20 hours per week | Permanent

Family First is looking for a kind, organised and people‑focused person to join our small team as a Family Support & Admin Assistant.

This is a lovely, varied role where you’ll support families during times of need, help keep our service running smoothly, and play a part in our social media and community communication. If you enjoy helping others, staying organised, and being part of a caring team, we’d love to hear from you.

What the role involves:
• Helping with day‑to‑day admin and record‑keeping
• Updating our website and social media
• Coordinating family feedback
• Supporting families when staff are on leave or when referrals increase
• Being a friendly, supportive presence for families and the team

What we’re looking for:
• Someone warm, approachable and organised
• Very confident with admin tasks and social media
• Comfortable speaking with families and handling sensitive information
• Flexible and happy to help where needed

If this sounds like you or someone you know please get in touch. We’d love to welcome the right person into our Family First team 🧡

Contact Cheryl at cheryl@familyfirst.org.je for a full job description or call 07829 900945 if you would like an informal chat.

09/01/2026

“My daughter has a spleen injury, we have to travel every three weeks to Southampton for surgery.”

When Caroline’s family was thrown into an unexpected medical journey, nothing felt familiar,

Not the hospital, not the routine and definitely not the road ahead.

Her daughter needed ongoing surgery. Every three weeks meant packing up, travelling to Southampton, and walking back into fear and uncertainty.

That’s when Jess from Family First stepped in.

She didn’t rush. She didn’t overwhelm. She just helped the family feel at ease in the moments that felt anything but.

And that support hasn’t stopped.

With the generous donations we’ve received and the funding we’ve sourced, Caroline’s family is still being supported today, they’re deeply grateful they don’t have to face this journey alone.

We’d like to take a quick moment to thank you all for the response on our recent posts, it’s meant alot to us and our families.

If you’re able, a small donation helps us keep showing up for families when they need it most.

You can support us here | https://jerseygiving.je/donate/family-first-jersey

Thank you as alwaysThe Grace Crocker Family Support Foundation and Friends of the Jersey Neonatal Unit for their incredible financial contributions to the families supported by Family First.

05/01/2026

🧡A heartfelt thank you to the Co-op Community Fund for your generous support 🧡

We would like to say a huge thank you for the £500 donation towards our office improvement project.

This support has made a real difference to our space and, most importantly, to the families we support. The funding has helped us install a leaflet display wall, making it easier for families to access information and be signposted to relevant support when their child requires off-island medical treatment.

It has also provided two new comfortable chairs for families and visitors, helping to create a more welcoming and supportive environment, as well as three new office chairs for our team — ensuring they are comfortable while carrying out their work supporting families during incredibly difficult times.

We are so grateful for this support, which helps us create a calm, practical, and welcoming space for families when they need it most. Thank you so much! Channel Islands Co-operative

05/01/2026

✨ Happy New Year from us all at Family First ✨
As we step into a new year, we’re proud to share some good news.
Family First now has a Jersey Giving page, making it even easier for our community to support families at one of the most challenging times of their lives.

We work alongside families whose child needs off-island medical treatment, providing emotional and practical support when they need it most. Through Jersey Giving, supporters can help ensure our service remains accessible, compassionate, and responsive throughout the winter and into the year ahead.

Every donation helps us continue to be there for families facing the uncertainty of hospital appointments, travel, and time away from home.
🔗 You can view our Jersey Giving page via the link below.

Thank you for supporting us as we move into this new year together with hope, kindness, and community at the heart of everything we do. 🧡

https://jerseygiving.je/donate/family-first-jersey

02/01/2026

“From the moment we met Jessica, we felt as if we had met a mother…
she was so kind, so caring, and so helpful.” - Robert Morosanu

When this family learned their baby boy would need to be born in Southampton due to a heart condition, their world tilted fast.

His first heart surgery happened when he was just a week old, and his second earlier this year.

These early weeks were terrifying. Being far from home while balancing fear, logistics, and the sheer exhaustion of having a critically ill newborn.

That’s when they connected with us.

Jessica stepped in and handled everything she could: flights, accommodation, securing financial support from our partner charities, and the steady emotional check-ins that matter more than most people realize.

She called often, making sure they weren’t just coping, but were actively being cared for.

Their little boy is now doing much better and we’re so grateful to have assisted them when we did.

We’re here to lift some of the burden so families can focus on their child, not the stressful situation around them.

If you’d like to help us be that support for more families, please consider donating to us today.

You can support us here | https://jerseygiving.je/donate/family-first-jersey

A very special thanks to Grace Crocker Family Support Foundation and our other charity partners for their incredible financial contributions to the families supported by Family First. Your support lets us continue doing what we do.