Matilda was born at 30 weeks, weighing just under 3lbs, after a traumatic pregnancy, during which we lost her identical twin sister, Hope. The care that we received throughout our journey from our doctors, nurses and midwives was outstanding. She simply would not be alive without the incredible world of modern antenatal and neonatal medicine.

Thankfully Matilda overcame her tough start and is now a beautiful cheeky, troublesome 2 year-old and her incredible resilience and lust for life has helped us all put the trauma of her early arrival behind us.

This May I am running the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon and any donations raised will be passed on to Bliss, a UK charity which is committed to achieving the best outcomes for babies born premature or sick.