Remembering Erin

Erin Louise Cooper was born 4 1/2 weeks early on 11th July 2019 at 3:26am. Erin was a very happy baby and had a smile for everyone she met. She captured our hearts instantly and made our family complete.

Amelia(Erin's big sister) adored her and their bond was and is unbreakable.

When Erin wasn't meeting her milestones I took my concerns to the doctor. I was reassured this was due to her being premature. As Erin was my second baby, I questioned this as something didn't seem right. I was frequently taking her to the doctors for colds and I was told there was nothing they could do.

On 19th February 2020 we went out for the day as it was the school holidays and all had a wonderful time. At night, I took Erin to bed as usual. As I was rocking her to sleep I felt her breathing seemed strange. I took her back downstairs and she stopped breathing.

The ambulance came and took her to hospital but Erin died at 8:45pm, she was 7 months 8 days old.

We had no idea why she died and the hospital said she was a perfectly healthy baby. She had to have a post mortem and, because of lock down, we didn't get the results for 1 year. The wait was excruciating.

When we finally got the results we found out Erin had a rare form of mitochondrial disease. Mitochondrial cardiomyopothy acad 9. Erin is still a massive part of our lives, we talk about her every single day and always will.

After we found out Erin's cause of death we found The Lily Foundation and soon realised what an amazing charity it is. We are raising money for them in the hope that one day they will find a cure.