Hi! Our names are Rachael Close and Laura Lea-Brown and we want to tell you a little about how we met, and why we’re fundraising!

Myself, Laura and Jodie are 3 preemie mummies who met at the beginning of our rollercoaster journeys caring for our tiny babies at Arrowe Park Neonatal back in March 2016. During the most desperate, darkest time of all of our lives, it was incredible that us 3 mummies had eachother to confide in, cry to, rant with, and generally be there for eachother throughout an experience that no friends or family could quite relate to as hard as they tried. We were all lucky enough that despite the odds, Laura took her gorgeous girl Frankie home, I brought my James home, and Jodie took beautiful Louie home, after spending their first few months in special care.

Over two years on and we still meet up and speak regularly, continuing to support eachother and share our stories. All 3 babies have done amazingly well and we are so lucky and proud. Louie is however at a point whereby despite his amazing progress, he is going to need a lot of extra help to get him up and walking over time, meaning expensive treatment which mum Jodie and dad Tom must fund. Louie had multiple bleeds on his brain at birth and has cysts which as a result affect his movement, coordination, and means he is quite behind developmentally, all leading to a recent diagnosis of quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

Jodie and Tom have done the most incredible job so far, aswell as big brother Jake, and things havent been easy to say the least, so myself and Laura want to do our little bit to help Louie, and have signed up to the Wirral Coastal Walk on 24th June! Anything you can donate would be so greatly appreciated and will go towards a fund for Louie’s ongoing treatment xxxx