A local gamer has organised an online charity gaming event to raise money for our special care baby unit.
31-year-old Samantha Gibben, who owns Geek Corner comic book shop in Stockton-on-Tees, has organised the event in memory of her older brother on their shared birthday.
Samantha’s older brother James was born on 18 February 1989 at North Tees General – now known as the University Hospital of North Tees.
Despite the best efforts of the staff on the special care baby unit where James was cared for, he unfortunately died at 10 days old due to complications from an unknown chromosome issue.
One year later to the day, Samantha was born. Now to celebrate their shared birthday, Samantha is live-streaming herself as she games online for 24 hours running. All while raising a target amount of £350 for the unit her big brother stayed on.
Samantha said: “Not a whole lot of people know this but I actually have an older brother.
“I was born one year later to the day James was which makes it a pretty bittersweet thing for my parents.
“As I’ve got older, I’ve noticed how much it really affects my parents. And I want to be able to do something in his honour and give back.
“Not only that, but my younger brother Daniel was born 14 weeks premature. He’s only here today thanks to the staff on the unit at North Tees Hospital.”
Berri’s birthday giveback
Samantha will be live-streaming on interactive streaming platform Glimesh as she plays multi-player first-person action video game Escape from Tarkov.
The stream will start at 10pm on Friday 17 February until 10pm on Saturday 18 February.
Samantha continued: “This allows me to stream for the majority of mine and my older brother’s birthday.
“I intend to invite my mum on to talk about her experience and why this is such an important cause to give to. She’ll also talk about how people can help in other ways, such as knitting hats and such for the unit.
“24 hours allows me to catch a good variation of time zones. And friends will be involved to play games and help me keep my energy up.”
Samantha has named the event ‘Berri’s birthday giveback’. Viewers can donate money to make Samantha’s gameplay more challenging or for simply a bit of fun.
For every £1 donation received she will play one minute of the game blindfolded, for £15 she will drop all ammo in the game and for a whopping £250 Samantha will delete her entire inventory.
She has also added in some fun challenges, such as playing in costume, and eating risky novelty sweets such as Super Sour Toxic Waste Candy and Harry Potter Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans – which come in rotten egg, earthworm and earwax flavours.
Janice Atkinson is ward matron on the special care baby unit at the University Hospital of North Tees. She said: “We would like to thank Samantha for undertaking this challenge to raise money for our unit in memory of her brother.
“It’s always special when money is raised by people who have experience of our unit and the care we deliver. Good luck to Samantha!”
If you would like to donate to Samantha’s cause please visit her JustGiving page. To take part in her streaming event, visit her Glimesh page between 10pm on Friday 17 and 10pm on Saturday 18 February.
