Almost 10 years ago Holly and Elliott decided they didn’t want to wait until their due date and arrived almost 4 months ahead of schedule. Within hours of their unexpected arrival they had been taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital as our local hospital wasn’t set up for babies born that early. SSNAP supported us from the moment we arrived. They gave us special memory boxes which the nurses filled with tubes and clean, tiny nappies. They paid for the tea we used to drink late at night as we stood by their incubators. They paid for nurse training and équipement for the unit. They provided us with accommodation right by the unit so we could be close at hand. When doctors thought Elliott wouldn’t last the night it was a SSNAP camera that was used to photograph his baptism and SSNAP memory stick the photos were put on.

So, eight years after I last ran a half marathon for SSNAP it’s time to do it again. I won’t be quick but I will run and I’ll be running to raise money for a charity that made an impossible situation nearly ten years ago bearable and manageable. If you have a little you can spare I would be so grateful. The support SSNAP gives to parents during the most frightening and stressful of experiences is incredible and I want to help them in a small way so they can keep helping parents in the way they helped Danny and I.

SSNAP support sick newborn, their parents and those that care for them; by providing emotional, medical, financial and informational support.

SSNAP was founded in 1982 and has supported the Newborn Care Unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital ever since. The unit can care for up to 56 babies at any one time and is a Level 3 Centre, the most sick and premature babies from across the Thames Valley, are looked after here in Oxford.