Introduction

Our names are Jack and Sarah we are planning to raise as much money as possible for the Derby Neonatal Unit.  As a lot of our close friends and family are aware, 2010 wasn't our best year.

Our Joy

Our story starts in December 2009 when we were overjoyed to find out we were pregnant and were due to have a baby in August 2010. We had a miscarriage the year prior to this so as you can imagine the first 12 weeks were very nerve racking. 

Here we go again!

At around 11 weeks I had some bleeding and thought the worst was happening again. We went straight to hospital to have a scan and found everything was fine with baby, we couldn't have been happier and thought it would be plain sailing from here.  But it wasn't.

Heartache

When I got to 15 weeks pregnant my waters broke and we were told to expect the worst. We were told baby could be born any day now as waters breaking are usually followed by delivery, but days turned into weeks and we managed to stay pregnant, but as my waters didn't refill the chances of baby surviving were very slim as the amniotic fluid is vital for babies lungs to develop.  We had read and heard good and bad stories of women whose waters had broken so early (but none as early as 15 weeks) and the doctors seemed pessimistic to say the least.  We were advised at every visit to the hospital to terminate as the chances weren't good.  We couldn't do that as we wanted to do everything we could for our little baby and never wanted to think 'what if'.  We shocked all the doctors and managed to stay pregnant till 29 weeks.

The Labour

On the 22nd of May 2010 I was very poorly and went into labour.  At 3.05am on the 23rd of May Alfie Jack was born only weighing 3lb 5oz and lived for 37hours.  In some ways we found it easier than if we had have terminated and not given him a chance because at least we got to meet our son.  Despite the excellent care and support from the neonatal unit, nothing could have been done to help him survive as his lungs just weren't developed enough to function properly.

We would like to raise as much money as we can to try and help other people in our situation in memory of our gorgeous son.  We will be doing several events to raise money - the first of which will be a 15 mile walk on the 26th May 2012.  

Although our story is very sad the unfortunate circumstances are that we aren't alone as many people have sad baby stories and hopefully with all contributions going to the derby neonatal unit we can do our best to improve the survival rate amongst these poorly babies.

Our silver lining is that we have since gone on to have a gorgeous healthy baby boy so we now feel it is time to help others.

Please donate as much as you wish by texting EJMP62 followed by your donation amount (including '£' sign) to 70070

After consultation with the founder of the neonatal unit charity we have since discovered that the unit is in need of quite a few very important things, so hopefully with your help we can really make a difference, below is a list of what the money will be used towards:

- Laryngoscope x 2 at £180 each

- Heated Cots x 3 or 4 at £500 each

- Highflow Oxygen Pressure at £2,250

- Cooling Blanket at £7000