Defying all expectations & beating the greatest of odds, our precious miracle Freddie James, arrived into the world 7 weeks early. With the briefest of glimpses at each other & hearing his small cry, Freddie was rushed to be assessed & ventilated by the NICU team.

Again odds were against Freddie, his chances of survival were slim. Freddie was diagnosed with a Congenital Heart Defect,multiple cysts in his lungs & persistent swelling & fluid throughout his body. Freddie being ventilated & these complications, suddenly hit home, hard, how unwell our son was & how there might not even be a cure for my beautiful little boy due to being so critical.

Every day the NICU team would work tirelessly to help Freddie survive & find answers. Constantly thinking of more ideas, tests, investigations, blood transfusions, higher settings for his ventilation, bigger consultant discussions. Freddie had everyone fighting for him. Some days Freddie could not tolerate being handled due to the extra fluid & swelling in his little body. Resulting in his heart rate & oxygen levels to drop. Each time a test/scan was performed or Freddie needed taking out of his incubator to be weighed it would take a little longer for him recover. Something that seems so trivial as being lifted less than a foot caused Freddie the greatest of distress,but he was still fighting. He made sure that we had memories along the way,that parents may take for granted. He opened his eyes,squeezed our hands,we had heard him cry. We had one treasured cuddle.He met his 3 year old sister.

After 25 long and emotional days Freddie fought hard to try and conquer his battle. That night he showed us he could no longer fight. We had to make the heartbreaking decision that no parent should ever have to make. We had to put our own emotions aside & do what was best for him. For our little miracle. Freddie passed away at 8.17pm on the 13th Jan 2017 peacefully in our arms. It will always be the hardest day of our lives.