Community Rallies Around the Wren Family after Baby Maddison Was Born Premature in Fiji
The community is rallying around a couple whose baby was born prematurely while they were on holiday in Fiji and are now stranded.
Ashley and Jayne Wren delivered baby Maddison Jayne Cazna Wren in the back of a taxi in Nadi when she was seven weeks premature. Now they need to bring the 1.74kg girl home and are asking for help to pay for the doctor-assisted trip.
While the couple moved to Port Macquarie more than a year ago, Mrs Wren said they were overwhelmed by the support they had received from the northern beaches.
“Ashley was a teacher at Pittwater House and I ran a cafe in Mona Vale called Jay’s Nest and this happening has really shown us how strong the community is,” Mrs Wren said from Nadi.
Pittwater House principal Nancy Hillier said Mr Wren’s former students and colleagues were keen to help.
“He always had a smile a mile long,” she said. “Now that smile is tinged with great concern about baby Maddy and his wife.
“Pittwater House is very much about family and community and even though Ashley relocated to Port Macquarie, he is still very much remembered.”
Dr Hillier said the school ran a fundraising bake sale for the couple this week.
“It’s the students who have really led this bake sale. At recess, I saw them walking around with baked cakes — they’ve really embraced the idea that, near or far, if someone needs help, they’ll be there.”
Meanwhile Mrs Wren said they were “living day by day” in Fiji.
“Maddison is perfect — she’s tiny but perfect and we’ve been so blessed to have an Australian-Fijian paediatrician who’s taken good care of us,” she said.
“When she was born, the hospital asked us whether we had any clothes for her to wear. My husband just started crying and said ‘we don’t have anything’. We had no idea she’d be so early.
“We’d been staying at the Sheraton and the staff came over with sheets, towels, baby clothes — everything we needed.”
She said medical advice was to wait until Maddison reached 2kg before flying but she was currently in a humidicrib.