Here I am again. I swore blind I would never put myself through the Great North Run again but two days after finishing it, I was like, yeah, next year-bring it on!! It's something about the atmosphere; makes you forget the pain, haha!!

So this year I have a general ballot entry place which has meant I have taken the opportunity to think about which charity I would like to fundraise for.

This time it's very personal. Not many know but I arrived early in to this world. Yes, I managed it once in my life! It was my mum's first pregnancy but she developed Pre-eclampsia. This meant I was born by C-section 6 weeks early, weighing 4lb 1oz,  and my new home for the time being was in an incubator at the Special Care Baby Unit at the General Hospital in Newcastle. My mum kept the band with my details on-I could barely fit two fingers through it now. Mad to think it was once on my wrist. There is a photo somewhere of my dad cupping me in both of his hands. I remember being fascinated by how small I was as I grew up. Luckily, both my mum and I ended up being fine.

As a child I ran the Junior Great North Run a few times and I raised money then for the SCBU at the General Hospital. I remember being 12 years old and the shy, introverted version of me having to go and present a cheque to a nurse who had cared for me as a baby. I also then got shown round the unit to see where I spent the first few weeks of my life. It was a bit overwhelming even then and I guess I didn't fully appreciate how scary a time it must have been for my parents.

Tiny Lives wasn't a part of my early life but what fantastic work they do supporting the babies and their parents during a time of the unknown. When I was born, Newcastle General Hospital's neonatal unit had its own fund-the NGH Special Care Fund (the one I used to run for when I was younger) as did the Princess Mary Maternity Hospital. In 1993, the neonatal units at the General and the Princess Mary merged into one unit which is now based at the RVI. After starting life in 1983 at the Princess Mary, Tiny Lives became a combined fund when the two units merged and then became a charity in its own right in 2013. Fundraising for them is a tiny gesture on my part, as an adult, to say 'thank you' to the nurses and doctors who cared for me and my mum when I was born.

Any donation will be hugely appreciated and will keep me motivated-I am not a natural runner at all!!

Thank you.

Nicola xxx

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