Hannah and I are running the North Norfolk Coastal Trail Marathon on 21st September this year, to raise funds for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the N&N Hospital, where our premature twin girls were cared for over 91 days.

Florence and Jessica were born at 26 weeks gestation, on 9th January 2023 at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. The doctors could not see a reason why labour had started so early, and after two long and very worrying days, the girls were born by emergency caesarean section just after midnight.

Florence weighed 981g (2lb) and Jessica weighed 730g (1lb 6oz). Once delivered, the tiny girls were attached to breathing apparatus before being whisked away from us in mobile incubators to the NICU, with a large team of specialists tending to each baby as they went. Once they had been admitted to the unit, and after a tense wait of several hours for news, we were allowed to see them properly for the first time.

We were suddenly confronted with the reality of having twins born so early and the intense level of care they would need. In separate incubators, surrounded by tubes, wires and hoses that were attached to all sorts of beeping machines, lay our tiny girls, their ventilators breathing for them.

We quickly learned that we simply couldn’t take things each day at a time; it was wiser to exist hour by hour, especially within the first 72 hours when the risk of brain hemorrhages is very high. Jessica also developed sepsis on day two but thankfully the doctors caught it in time.

Blood transfusions, brain scans, on and off ventilators, CPAP machines, vapotherm machines, feeding tubes, long lines, echocardiograms and weekly eye scans became our new normal. Our new routine was based around travelling back and forth to the hospital while trying to keep things as normal as we could for our three-year-old son, Finn. We were always on high alert as we had learned it was often 'two steps forward one step back'- a month in, Florence had to be resuscitated after going into sudden cardiac arrest. The girls slowly became more stable though, and we began to look at their treatment and growth on a weekly rather than a daily basis.

We were overwhelmed by the level of incredible skill and support from the unit, by how they cared for our babies and how nothing was ever too much trouble during their long stay. Although it was an experience we wish we had never had, we look back with huge fondness on the incredible staff in the NICU and can honestly say that without them, our girls wouldn’t be where they are today.

The fundraising for our marathon is a little way for us to give back to the unit. They are currently raising money for a transport ventilator and we hope that we can go some way in helping them raise the funds needed. We’ll be starting at Holme Next-the-Sea and running to Morston in the North Norfolk Coastal Marathon, and would hugely appreciate any donation, no matter how small.