As you may have heard by now, on the 17th October 2014 I will officially be climbing Mt Kilimanjaro with charity challenge, to raise money for Bliss, a charity that supports babies born too soon, too small, too sick. Every day hundreds of babies are born prematurely; around 1 in 9 babies in the UK are born too soon or too sick - that's around 82,000 babies a year. About 17,000 of these require intensive care. Every 6 minutes in the UK, a newborn baby requires urgent specialist care, and every 24 minutes a newborn baby requires life-saving intensive care.

Raising money for Bliss means thats thousands of lives can be changed by helping them in their amazing work that they do with babies and their families. Bliss campaigns for the changes needed to ensure that medical staff have the best resources available to be able to treat babies, regardless of where they are born. They also campaign within government and the NHS to raise awareness and for investment in health services. These changes could affect their lives of anyone, and help to build our confidence that babies born too soon, too small or too sick can be treated and helped to get better.

Bliss also carries out research into new techniques and treatments that have the potential to save and improve premature babies lives, and helps fund new developments in care, such as major clinical research projects and training of health care professionals.

Bliss helps support the families of special care babies emotionally and practically through the most difficult times, using publications, helplines and leaflets, and can help parents to get through some of the hardest, most traumatic times of their lives. They also provide specialist training for counsellors across the UK for parents in desperate need of this service.

I have chosen Bliss as the charity I want to fundraise for as it so close to my heart. On the 9th December 2004 my beautiful daughter Daisy May Beale was born at Derriford Hospital nearly 13 weeks early at 2lb 4oz. Soon after, her weight dropped to 1lb 6oz, as she was a poorly little girl. Due to her health issues caused by being born too soon, Daisy was unable to digest milk properly, and was treated using Gaviscon. However, she continued to have stomach problems, and doctors suspected she had a twisted stomach or tumour. However, lots of tests revealed that actually Daisy had a congealed mass of protein; the medication she was taking was creating a build up in Daisy's tiny belly, which was creating more complications.

The doctor looking after Daisy then surprised us all by asking for some pineapple juice. Daisy was given this using an aspirator, and then juice worked by all of its' acids breaking down the protein that had built up.Who would have thought that a carton of pineapple juice from a vending machine could save a baby's life?! I can remember walking from ward to ward buying all of the pineapple juice I could get my hands on! Even the doctors agreed that my girl was extremely special, with her story being written as part of an article for medical students.

For the next 6 weeks Daisy was treated in the ICU at Bristol, with her special pineapple juice, along with other care and support, before she returned to the Neonatal Ward at Derriford for around another 3-4 weeks. Although she was small for her age, Daisy was then a healthy weight to come home with her family.

Daisy May is now 9 years old, a fantastic dancer with lots of trophies for her dancing. She loves sports, music and is popular with lots of friends. I am so proud of what she has become. Those first weeks of Daisy's life were some of the hardest times of my life, but charities like Bliss mean that she was able to receive the best care, treatment and attention. I am now feeling confident and ready for my own personal challenge to help give something back, and help other premature babies continue to receive the outstanding support that Daisy did.  

Any donations made through this page will go directly to Bliss, so dig deep! If any businesses would like to sponsor my charity challenge, please contact me either through this page or email fishovpafc@yahoo.co.uk and I will be more than happy to agree ways I can use your company logo during my climb.

As well as the climb, I will be organising lots of events to help towards the £4,300 target, including a family fun day, sponsored events, raffle and special rave night for the party animals! I will update everyone with all details closer to the time, so please attend and support in any way that you can.

Thanks for reading my story, now get donating!