On the 11th of January 2010, in Bournemouth, my wife Charlotte and I were celebrating the birth of our baby daughter Matilda. She was a beautiful baby girl and we had a normal labor and birth. 

During her first 10 days we noticed a few odd symptoms such as the fact that she had cold/blue feet. We thought this was due to the fact that it was winter and thought no more of it. She also slept a lot, which again we didn't read anything into.

In the morning of her 10th day Matilda (Tilly) was having problems breathing and wouldn't settle back to sleep. Charlotte decided to take her to the out of hours GP. 

The situation went from bad to worse and she was really struggling to breathe. At the first the doctors didn't know what was wrong and we were transferred to another hospital in Poole. Within minutes she was put on a ventilator but the Doctors still didn't know what was causing the problem. 

Due to her young age and the severity of her condition, Southampton PICU sent a specialist retrieval unit to bring her to the back to the Unit. 

Once they arrived they informed us that they suspected it was a heart problem and they wanted to take her back to Southampton PICU immediately in an ambulance. 

We were told to follow behind and that if we saw the ambulance stop at the side of the road that we should carry on to Southampton, as they might need to do emergency procedures if her condition worsened. Thankfully she made it to Southampton without that happening.

One thing we took comfort in a strange way was that the ambulance had the number plate -alf- which was Tilly’s older brothers name. 

On arrival at Southampton, Charlotte and I were distraught with fear that we might lose our baby girl. After examining Tilly, the consultant told us that she was suffering from a Coarctation of the aorta, which is a narrow artery coming from the heart, and that this would require emergency heart surgery. The doctors explained the high level of risk to us and told us that she was a very poorly baby.

We were asked if we were religious (Charlotte is Catholic) and if we wanted to christen Tilly before the operation. A priest actually came into hospital from a local church to christen her, at which point we named her Matilda Evie Jean Downey (Evie means life and Jean was her Great Grandmas name). Again, as you can imagine this was extremely distressing.

The doctors took Tilly into surgery and all we could do was wait and hope.

The first bit of good news we had that day was that Tilly had survived the operation and was going to be brought back up to PICU. We were so happy. 

Thankfully for us, from this point on Tilly’s health improved and after about a week in PICU she was able to come out of intensive care and eventually to come home. At 6 months old she unfortunately had to have another operation to widen the artery, which meant another stay at PICU, but again she came through it and the doctors now only want to see Tilly every couple of years. The VSDs in her heart also amazingly closed themselves. 

She is now a happy and fiery little 3 year old girl at nursery. Charlotte and I have since had another baby boy called Alex and the 3 siblings are growing up together. 

The level of care we received at PICU was astounding and world class. I fully credit them with saving my daughters life.

This is why I would like now to try to raise money for them through this event. 

The event, on the 11 of May 2013, is a 20-mile obstacle course with 200 obstacles and will be grueling to say the least. Maybe not as grueling as what Tilly went through but we can’t all be as tough as her. 

Any money/support you can give to Friends of PICU would be really appreciated by the Charity and by my family. 

Thanks in advance for any donations.

The Downey Family.