Last year I nearly lost both my identical twin boys to a rare disease called TAPS - Twin Anaemia and polycythemia Sequence. I’m now trying to raise awareness because it’s still not routinely checked for and babies are dying.

3-5% of identical twins are documented as suffering but they think as many as 63% of cases are being missed before birth and due to lack of routine testing the actual number of identical twins suffering is unknown. Therefor the number of babies dying in utero from TAPS is unknown. The number of babies being left with, in some cases, severe long term implications due to undiagnosed TAPS is unknown. What we do know is that this shouldn’t and mustn’t happen.

We were lucky as due to a size difference we were sent to a specialist hospital that then knew to check. Without this both babies would have died. Every parent deserves this luck and every baby deserves a chance.

I want to fundraise to get a copy of the book into every neonatal and fetal medicine unit in the country of which there are around 220. Starting with the 72 NICU (neonatal intensive care) units

When we found out we had TAPS, there were no stories of hope, nothing to grab hold of just research and statistics that were hard to read and frightening. I vowed then that if we got through I'd like to be that story of hope, beacon of light for another parent. So they didn't have to go through what we did alone. To say there is hope!! Once I started my journey to help raise awareness I realised how important it is to also get the name TAPS out there.

It’s not just for parents and families but it’s little known about within the medical profession and this needs to change. By getting the books in the units, it will not only be a story of hope for parents it will also be a beacon to educate, so that people that don’t know look into and start talking and learning about TAPS.

Please help me save babies by paying it forward, buy a book for a hospital £10 will enable me to buy a copy and send it to the hospital.

Link to buy book

www.TAPStwins.co.uk