ANDREW and Joanne wereon cloud nine when McKenziearrived on February 13.But the dream turned toevery parent’s worst night-mare just 24 hours later,when their seemingly healthylittle girl developed problemsand was rushed to YorkhillChildren’s hospital.Last Monday, grief-strickenAndrew and Joanne, 26, had theharrowing task of registeringtheir daughter’s birth AND deathon the same day.They laid her to rest in atearful woodland funeral cere-mony in Ayrshire yesterday.Andrew, 30, from Bo’ness, WestLothian, foughtback tears as hesaid: “We are justnumb — it doesn’tfeel real.“When I got toRachel House onthe day she died,she opened herwee eyes and wasjust looking atme and it wasreally nice. Shelooked like a perfect little girl.“I held her in my arms and Iremember whispering to her, ‘Ifit’s too much for you, darling, justrun away. Just go where you’vegot to go. We love you and wewill always remember you’.“About five or ten minuteslater she just passed away. Wewere both holding her.”McKenzie had been cruelly diag-nosed with THREE rare conditions.Ivemark Syndrome — also knownas right atrial isomerism — meantMcKenzie had a series of organproblems. She also had a rare con-genital heart disease truncus arte-riosus — where only a single ves-sel comes from the heart insteadof two — and a hole in her heart.Medics gave the mite less thana month to live and she wasmoved to Rachel House.Petrol tanker driver Andrew

explained “Everything was fine

until Joanne gave birth. She hadto go to theatre straight afterwardsand I just got handed a baby.“For a couple of hours, I wasin heaven, talking away to mynew wee girl. She then lay besideJoanne for 24 hours in the ward.“I remember saying to the mid-wife that every time she criedher hands and feet were goingblue, but they said it was noth-ing to worry about.“It was a whole day later thatsomeone finally had a closer lookat her and said, ‘There might bea problem here’.“We were left with the heart-wrenching decision whether totry surgery to prolong her life fora couple of weeks and risk hersuffering even more. So we

decided that thekindest thing todo, if she wasn’tin any pain, wasjust to let naturetake its course.”Andrew — whohas seven-year-old son McGregorfrom a previousrelationship — anda dm i n i s t r a t o rJoanne took greatcomfort from the

way the family were treated atRachel House. He said: “We wereonly here for 24 hours but to seeMcKenzie without machines andwires around her is the memorywe will keep.“After she passed away wewere left with her for about anhour. We got her dressed then weput her in her pram and we tookher to the Rainbow Room, whichis a very comforting place.”He added: “By speaking aboutMcKenzie we hope we can raisesome money and at least her lifewon’t have been in vain.“We had no idea a place likeRachel House existed and it hasgiven us so much comfort.“We’re so glad we had a placelike this to come to, to make theworst moment of our life a loteasier. We’ll never forget the helpwe received here.”

MISS SCOTLAND Nicola Mimnagh’s TiaraAppeal aims to raise £100,000 for the Child-ren’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS),to build a new young adult space at theirRachel House centre, right.Devastated Andrew Wallace and Joanne Weir

realise the importance of what RachelHouse and sister hospice Robin Houseoffer. They were left heartbroken whentheir daughter McKenzie, left, died atRachel House at just FIVE DAYS old.Here they tell GRAEME DONOHOE why

they’ll use their pain to highlight theincredible work of the hospice . . .

TWO of Scotland’s mostpopular theatres havebeen given a £400,000emergency bailout afterhitting financial trouble.The Festival and KingsTheatres in Edinburghpleaded for the advanceon their 2010/11 grantfrom the city council tohelp pay their bills.Both venues are run bythe cash-strapped Festi-val City Theatres Trust,which is looking to axejobs to save £300,000.A spokeswoman for thetrust said they suffered“rough trading conditionsover the winter season”.The council paid out amonth early because it“acknowledged the chal-lenges the trust faced”.

Theatres’£400kaid

THE world’s shortestcommercial flight bet-ween two Scots islands isbeing turned into a sight-seeing trip for tourists.Loganair will run theservice between Westrayand Papa Westray in Ork-ney three times a weekfrom June to September.The flight, which was ahuge hit with visitorswhen it was launchedlast year, normally takesjust two minutes.But the operator is run-ning it as a 45-minuteround trip, includinglanding and take-off.It will cost £39 per per-son for a return — includ-ing a certificate and a mi-niature whisky from localdistillery Highland Park.

Isletripforflightseers

n EMAIL info@chas.org.uk orcall 0141 779 6180 to book a

table at The Scottish Sun MissScotland Tiara Ball on May 14, atGlasgow’s Hilton Hotel. To makea donation, go to justgiving.com/MissScotlandTiaraAppeal or callthe above number with yourdebit or credit card.

30 Tuesday, March 1, 2011 1S