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Our beautiful Ruby May was born at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on 22nd October 2009 at just 25weeks and 5 days, she weighed a tiny 470gms (just over 1lb). It took them 4 weeks to get her off the ventilator and onto CPAP, and in then January she got meningitis. Each set back she encountered she dealt with in her own way and wouldn't be pushed to the doctors timescale, which led to a new expression within the family of doing things in 'Ruby time'. After every setback she had she recovered and took 2 steps forward. She hated the restrictions of CPAP so when Norfolk and Norwich put her on vapotherm she loved it. She was bright as a button, funny, beautiful, strong willed and very cheeky! She was doing so well and really starting to gain weight at last, she had the cutest little dimples in her knees. In March she went onto nasal oxygen in preparation to come back to West Suffolk Hospital, we all got very excited at the thought of being one step closer to finally leaving hospital and bringing her home to Amy and Jamie's cosy flat. Unfortunately she caught a virus which badly affected her already damaged lungs and only spent a few days at West Suffolk before having to be transferred to Addenbrookes NICU. She spent  a week on the ventilator sedated and unconcious and in that time Amy and Jamie were the only ones allowed to visit which was very hard on the rest of us. on Wednesday 21st April they decided to try her back on CPAP and Amy's mum, sister and myself were allowed there with Amy and Jamie. We saw her on the ventilator and by then she was awake, alert and back to her cheeky self, trying to smile at us depsite the tube in her mouth. She did well on CPAP for a few hours before having a bad episode and they suggested Amy and Jamie might like to have her christened. Her poor little heart was struggling with the extra work her damaged lungs were causing. After the christening she settled down and had a good stable few days, but on the Saturday she started to tire. When we got to the hospital we were taken into a room and told there was nothing further they could do. They prepared a quiet room for Amy and Jamie to be with Ruby, and the rest of the family took it in turns to say our goodbyes to her before leaving Amy and Jamie alone with her. Ruby sadly passed away in Amys arms just after 2am on Sunday 25th April 2010. We were able to give her one last cuddle and she looked so peaceful and beautiful with no wires or tubes at long last. She was a special gift and we were so lucky to share her life for 6 months we had her. This wouldn't have been possible without the hard work of the wonderful NICU teams at both Norfolk and Norwich and Addenbrookes and we would like to give something back to them, so please give whatever you can afford no matter how small.