On 28th August 2018, myself and Matt were very fortunate to welcome our beautiful baby girl into the world - our first child - who we named Riley. She decided that she was in a hurry to meet us, arriving 3 months early and weighing a teeny tiny 1lb 7oz.

In light of her prematurity, our micro preemie warrior has spent the first 13 weeks of her life in intensive care, firstly at the Medway Maritime hospital in Kent where she was born and subsequently at Kings College Hospital London where we were transferred a week after her birth and where she is still being looked after in the neonatal high dependency unit.

During our time in hospital, Riley has received round-the-clock care from the amazing medical teams at both hospitals and we have witnessed first hand the impact that equipment donated by the Ickle Pickles Foundation can have on babies and their families.

For example, in her first few weeks of life when we were able to have a cuddle with Riley who was extremely fragile, we had access to one of the reclining chairs recently donated to Kings by the charity. This made such a differerence to us, meaning that we could carry out Kangaroo Care, having beneficial skin-to-skin contact with our precious girl for over 2 hours at a time without getting too uncomfortable!

Although she will spend her first Christmas in hospital, Riley is now out of an incubator and up to 4lbs in weight, getting a little bigger and stronger every day.

In light of Riley’s incredible journey so far, this Christmas we are asking you to consider donating, to help the Ickle Pickle Foundation. They have funded equipment both small and large, from incubators and ventilators through to feeding chairs and tiny baby nests, all of which Riley has been fortunate enough to have access to, and which will go towards helping other preemies as they embark on their journey.

For more information please visit www.icklepickles.org

Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

Ruth, Matt and Riley xxx 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.