Following a chat I had with Kate the ward manager of Peterborough NICU late last year, I discovered that there are plans for a new room on the NICU ward. It will be a room where parents can talk with doctors in private about the care of their baby, or a place to go where they can have a good cry (speaking as someone who has spent time in NICU with a poorly baby, those moments do happen frequently!).

During that conversation I told Kate I would raise money to buy a comfy sofa for that room. One of the many things we found difficult about our time in NICU was that we always felt so exposed in there, one of my lasting memories is a doctor approaching me in the middle of the unit (not even in Xander's bay) to tell me they suspected he may have meningitis and/or sepsis and needed my permission to do a lumbar puncture. I can't explain what it is like to be told information like that, but to be told it in front of everyone is very difficult. If there had  been a room we  could have used for situations like this, or just for me to use in the moments I spent crying, it would have been amazing and made our NICU stay a whole different experience.

This is my first fundraising event this year, I am hoping by the end of this year I have enough money to buy the sofa!

I am hoping some of you lovely people will sponsor me to go vegetarian for Lent! Most people give up alcohol or chocolate to raise money in events like this, but I rarely consume either of those things, so it wouldn't be much of a challenge for me. I am 100% cavewoman though and L-O-V-E meat, so I know I am going to find this so tough. I hope to achieve my £50 target between now and Easter Sunday (which, FYI, will be a full on meat fest, I fully expect to be in a meat coma by the end of Easter Sunday, haha)