Why am I running:

Up until the birth of my first child, as a family we hadn’t heard of BIBS.

Henry, my eldest, was full term but extremely poorly when he was born. We had a tricky labour which resulted in being rushed in for an emergency birth, and unfortunately Henry wasn’t breathing when he was born. In fact, he didn’t take his first breath until 10 minutes after. Once they got him breathing again, he was immediately taken up to Buscot and put on a ventilator to help with his breathing. Thankfully he had a short stay of just 2 nights before he joined Liz down on the maternity ward, and a few days later Liz and Henry were discharged and able to go home. Henry is now almost 12, a keen footballer, loves Reading FC, YouTube, his phone and the switch, and in his first year of secondary school.

The support and care he received was incredible, and we will be forever grateful, as without it our lives would be very different today.

My running history:

I have run the Reading half 4 times last running it in 2018 and in 2020 I ran the London Marathon virtually and since then my running trainers haven't seen the light of day until now!

Team BIBS are running the Reading Half to raise funds to purchase the Buscot Ward a brand new incubator, costing £24,000 🎯

This life saving piece of equipment will be replacing one of the current incubators which are between 5-10 years old!

It has lots of benefits over the current ones -

• it can be lowered all the way down to allow positioning to support family integrated care

• it has gentle drop access panels which minimizes stress induced sound frequently produced when accessing a baby

• there is a no disturb x-ray cassette tray so that the staff would not need to disturb the baby's environment during radiologic procedures.

• has built in weighing scales.

• not to mention the change in technology!

A bit about the charity:

Babies in Buscot Support (BIBS) raise funds to give sick and premature newborns at the RBH the best possible start in life.

The charity is run by parents that have had a baby spend time on Buscot Ward. That is why they care so deeply, and want all babies admitted to Buscot Ward to have the best possible start to life.

BIBS work focuses in 4 main areas of activity, which BIBS call keeping Buscot families "SAFE":

Support - providing families with independent emotional support while their baby is on Buscot, and beyond.

Awareness - help inform parents about what to expect from a stay on Buscot by providing written information & raise awareness of issues related to prematurity or sickness at birth.

Facilities - refurbish facilities and accommodation on the ward to provide a more homely environment.

Equipment - fund life-saving equipment for the ward including incubators, cardiac monitors, ventilators, phototherapy and cots.