In 2015, whilst both on business in London and during our 26th week of pregnancy, my partner Ashley went in to labour and three days later we welcomed our beautiful, but very tiny daughter Anais into the world at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital. Both Mother and Daughter where treated in intensive care and it was another 4 days before Ashley was well and able enough to meet Anais.

Even the most straight forward pregnancies/birth's are stressful and worrying but premature birth and the huge complications it brings is a harrowing and life changing experience. To have deal with this 200 miles away from home, family, friends and our support network made this even more difficult. 

It became apparent quite quickly that Anais would need specialist help for months rather than weeks and the prospect of being able to take our daughter home seemed a very long way off.

As well as caring for Anais, the staff at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital were in talks with their counterparts at Liverpool Women's hospital discussing options to transfer her home. Given Anais' general condition, a weight gain of only 126g from her birth weight of 954g, still being fed via tubes and completely dependent upon oxygen, this could only be done through air transfer.

Unbeknownst to us, there was charity funding available to make an air ambulance transfer a reality rather than a dream via Lucy Air Ambulance for Children.

Lucy Air Ambulance for Children is a registered Charity that is dedicated to delivering fixed wing air transfers for seriously ill babies and children up to the age of 16 in the UK who require a planned transfer service. We fly seriously ill babies and children throughout the UK, supported by professional staff trained for in flight care, working alongside the NHS to deliver the highest standards of service to give the best survival chances. We rely entirely on the generosity of our supporters to provide this service.