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In 2017 one of the ABS team of rowers life changed dramatically. Throughout the year to date he and his partners life continues to present many challenges which he would like to bring to your attention with the view of helping a very worthy cause. Please see below, Phil & Amy's story.

'My son Avan was born on the 22^nd
January 2017, weighing in at 1lb 4oz (580g). His journey into this world actually started on Christmas Eve 2016, the night that my partner, Amy’s,
waters broke – out of the blue. The initial shock was terrifying and the unknown was equally daunting. She was only 19 weeks pregnant. From this moment, we had several meetings and scans per week with consultants at the RVI Hospital in Newcastle. Aftergoing through every possible scenario and asking what felt like a thousand questions, then asking them again to try and make sense of what was happening, we found ourselves in the middle of January. Starting to feel confident that the baby had decided to hang around for now. As each day went by, the chances of him surviving would theoretically increase.

21^st January 2017 – Our daughters 3^rd birthday. Note – try not to have children in January, it’s too close to Christmas and will cost you an absolute fortune. With that aside, we threw our daughter’s birthday party the next day and had great time, in fact it was unforgettable considering Amy started to have pains that we thought were Braxton Hicks. After the party we went up to hospital as a precaution, where we were told that Amy had entered the early stages of labour and there was no stopping the boy now!! Back to our thousand questions and the unknown. 23:46hrs, he was born – the tiniest human I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. Being born at this stage in pregnancy, babies are generally given a
50-50 chance of survival, the RVI stats are slightly better as we were told. Then came the news that he was fine and transported to the Special Care Baby
Unit (SCBU). Amazing, emotional, relieved, lost for words –now two birthdays in January – a day apart and just after Christmas. When one turns 18, the other
turns 21 – great!! And, I wouldn’t change it for the world!

Since the drama of Christmas, New Year and Birthdays I would like to say that life slowed down for us, but no, in actual fact it ramped up, we had only embarked the rollercoaster and had no idea when we’d get off.

Avan’s first two weeks were worrying, but
when we look back they were quite nice. He was in a humidified Incubator, having his breathing done for him by a ventilator and slowly started some food.
The third week, things took a turn for the worse when he caught an infection called Nectorizing Enterocolitis (NEC). This infection attacks the bowels of premature
babies. We spent days through to weeks not knowing if the goodnight kiss we gave him that night, was his last. He underwent several operations to battle
this infection. NEC has brought with it several other issues in which Avan contracted Sepsis, he also requires his nutrition to be delivered by IV instead
of normal milk. Hopefully his final operation, which was on the 25^th April 2017 will mean that he can start to feed normally again once he has
recovered. Laser eye treatment was his next adventure, which can be common in
premature babies. This is done to tackle Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) – basically to prevent blindness.

Amongst all the chaos, Avan has come through everything thrown at him so far and the word ‘proud’ doesn’t quite cut it. As I write this, he is 14 weeks and 6 days old, almost 38 weeks corrected
and not technically due until the 19^th may 2017. He is now 6lb 10ozs and looks like he could take on the world.

The back story leads me on to our chosen
charity – Tiny Lives. A charity that supports premature and sick newborn babies
and their families on the Neonatal Unit at the RVI hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne. Without this support I don’t know how families like us, would get through a situation like this. Funds raised for Tiny Lives allows this incredible charity to provide developmental care aids and equipment, such as baby nests, sleep shades, memory boxes, journals, and milestone indicators to record even the hardest days. Family rooms, accommodation, parking permits and research grants are just a few of the facilities in place to assist families throughout their time on the neonatal unit. The ward is equipped with impeccably trained nurses, physiotherapists, social workers and psychologists all of which provide infallible support. It’s a personal honour to compete in this year’s annual Tyne Boat race, to give a little back to a charity that gives so much.

Thank you for taking the time to read our
sons little story and I hope that you can give as much or as little as possible
to support us in beating our second place finish last year.