In April 2010 I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy. Unfortunately it was a hugely traumatic event that involved an emergency c-section, followed by extensive surgery. I was conscious throughout and aware that I lost 14 pints of blood and nearly my life.

For our family it was the best and worst day of our lives, gaining a beautiful baby but nearly losing a wife, mother and daughter and sister. The amazing skill and dedication of medical staff at Queens Medical Centre meant that after a spell in intensive care I could be discharged and allowed home to begin my recovery.

At first baby Daniel seemed to have been unscathed by the trauma of the birth but soon after he developed chronic colic. Life for the family became extremely distressing. Daniel would scream for hours every single day in acute pain. Every medication and common remedy was tried, doctors were consulted, formula was changed but nothing seemed to help.  We couldn’t go out, go anywhere in the car, go for a walk, or any of the normal activities you look forward to doing with a new baby. Life for his big sister was not much fun and as parents, after everything we had been through at the birth, we were at the end of our tethers. Having a tiny baby in such obvious, awful pain was too much to bear.

Then several people recommended an osteopathic clinic in Nottingham.  We must admit that we were rather sceptical about how much difference it could make. However, after the first treatment, we regained a bit of normality in our lives. Treated by kind, gentle and very caring professionals, our baby has never since screamed in pain for the 5 or 6 hours a day that had become normal. The treatment is still ongoing, but we now have a settled, happy, smiling boy who is developing well. We were very lucky to be in a position to be able to use and fund private treatment, but many others cannot.

Osteopathy is not funded by the NHS. We want to raise money and awareness through the Foundation of Paediatric Osteopathy so that other desperate parents and poorly babies can access this treatment.

 ‘The Foundation for Paediatric Osteopathy a charitable organisation based in London, seeks to ensure that paediatric osteopathy - a gentle, effective and environmentally-friendly treatment - is established as the first recourse for parents and carers concerned for their child's health  It costs us £1million each year to run our services, including our free clinics in which we are now able to offer more than 30,000 treatments annually. We receive no funding from the Government (we are not part of the NHS) and so are entirely reliant upon the generosity of the public to meet our running costs.’