My wife and I we're looking to add to our little family of 3, which consists of us two, our 13 years old daughter Lacey at the time and chunk our lockdown Shih-Poo.  After going through the pain of losing a baby through miscarriage in 2020 we found out we were pregnant again in 2022. The weeks went by and around week 8 had a scare where there was bleeding and after an emergency scan at the hospital, we were advised there was nothing to worry about baby was still present. We arrived at our 12-week scan and everything was as expected and we decided not to find out the sex of the baby. Along came week 22 where apparently this scan is optional but we wanted to know if things were still ok, which I guess is to be expected with our previous pregnancy. As any parent to be the last thing you want to hear is that there are anomalies with the baby and we need to prepare for the worst. Our consultant advised the baby had an issue with the heart and one chamber, long/short bones, light blood on the bladder and 1 ventricle and artery on the umbilical cord and growth at 285gs, which was below gestation. There was a real risk there may not be a baby from one week to the next or major health issue and was advised to consider intervention prior to an additional scan at week 26 to check blood flow and growth. As required target is 600gs to consider premature delivery.The four weeks leading up to week 26 as you can imagine were hell for any parent to be. After many conversations my wife and I decided what will be will be and to allow our baby a fighting chance. The scan confirmed the Dopplers (blood flow) were still functioning and weight gain got to 590 so caution was thrown to the wind and the pregnancy continued. At this stage we were having 2 scans a week and meeting with the cardiologist Team from St Thomas Hospital as we would be delivered at week 37 by planned Caesarean due to a condition known as co-optation of the aorta. At week 29 we were called in to the hospital as they wanted to go to 3 scans a week but that Wednesday the baby's vitals dipped and my wife was admitted to hospital for an emergency C-Section. After being admitted to St Thomas the hours went by and still we waited only for the delivery to be cancelled as the baby's vitals improved. After another 4 weeks in hospital the baby decided to make an appearance and was delivered by emergency C-Section which I made by the skin of my teeth to see the arrival of my son Avery Raggatt born premature at 33 weeks and 3 days. From the operating room he was checked over and taken straight to neonatal intensive care unit where he was in an incubator for 3 weeks before being moved to High Dependency Unit for 3 weeks before ending up in Special Care Baby Unit for another week at which point they declared Avery not to have his heart condition or require surgery. During this whole journey it would not have been possible to manage without the unbelievable support from Ronald McDonald Charity House which allowed us as parents to be a 10-minute walk from Avery. Avery was then moved back to his local Medway hospital to help with feeding before being discharged after 8 whole weeks. Avery is home and doing well but still a long way to go with check-ups and growth.

Myself and my friend Rob Wells be fundraising for Red Eagle Foundation and Ronald McDonalds Charity House by doing the 3 Peak Challenge in 24 hours!