On August 8th 2018 at 30 weeks pregnant I went in to sudden labour with no warning signs at all.

We only had enough time to get to the hospital (around 20mins) and our son arrived. He was worked on immediately and taken to NICU.

Little did we know our journey had just begun. Gabriel was taken to the intensive care unit where he would spend weeks hooked up to life saving machines, we were catapulted into a world we knew nothing about. He suffered a bleed on his brain, a heart defect and required c pap to enable him to breathe.

Days passed before we could hold our son. There are currently no facilities for families to stay overnight with their premature babies. Each night for 6 long weeks we had to walk away and leave our precious boy in hospital. Each night we would walk down the corridor then back again to get one last look through the window of the doors to have “one last check” on his machines that they weren’t alarming. Each night we feared it would be the last... The sounds of the machines still haunt my sleep and can be a trigger for us both in different situations still.

Every single day of my life over 3 years on from his birth I run through the day in my head questioning what I did wrong and why, why this happened to me, to us and to Gabriel. Why us? There has to be a reason.

My placenta was annalysed and a year later I received a letter saying. Nothing was wrong with it and the premature labour was simply “unexplained”.

I was treated for PTSD in all stemming from the experience of having a premature baby and still have after affects of trauma.

Gabriel now 3 years old still has ongoing appointments and meetings with various specialists, consultants and paediatricians at FVRI he has a long road ahead of him. 

15 million children are born too early every year…One million babies die. 

Borne are working hard to research into preventing this happening. 

I think you’ll agree this is an amazing charity working so hard to stop families experiencing this heart ache.

The truth is you never know when premature birth will affect your life or someone you love.  Premature births affect 1 in 13 babies in the uk. Please donate what you can.

Four of us are ran a half marathon on  24th October (original date as a practice run) and then officially May 15th 2022 Stirling Half Marathon is our next run! 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity.