Jack and Henry Jenkins were born at 8:10pm and 8:16pm respectively on the 26th October 2006 in Houston, Texas.  They were 15 weeks too early and weighed just 730g each.  They were very, very sick. The odds of survival weren't great, and the chance of severe mental handicap very high.

Andrea and I sat by their incubators every day for the next x days and willed them to live. We were told it would be a roller coaster ride.  it was. There were times when we scraped the bottom of the barrel of despair, times when I started bargaining my soul to let them pull through.

We were very lucky and had support from some of the best medical facilities the world has to offer at women's hospital of Texas and the Texas Children's hospital. They had surgeries,  they had blood transfusions, they got sick and had infections.

My beautiful boys survived.  Yes we spent the next 2 years going to Texas Children's Hospital once a week for checks on eyes, brain, lungs, heart, hearing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, MRI's.  The list goes on.  But they survived.  They are normal 7 year old boys now. You wouldn't know their story to look at them. In fact they can be little tykes. They fight continuously, misbehave, watch too much tv, and moan about going to school. Fantastic.

I'm going to do an Ironman triathlon to raise money for a charity that helps babies like Jack and Henry.  It's possibly the hardest endurance sporting event that exists: 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, ending with 26.2 mile run.  It'll take about 15 hours.  

It is my profound honor to do his for my little boys.  Their courage and determination far exceeds anything I will ever be able to demonstrate.  But hopefully I can put something back so that other babies don't have to.

Gareth