In August 2021, Lee and I became proud parents to our beautiful little boy Ralph. Ralph was born extremely premature at 25 weeks plus 1 day gestation, we weren’t expecting him for another 15 weeks so it was a big shock to say the least. He weighed a very tiny 810g (around 1 pound 7 ounces) and needed a lot of extra support so when Ralph was just a few hours old we were transferred from Frimley Park to St. Peter’s neonatal unit in Chertsey. 

Premature babies need to be in an environment as similar to the womb as possible for their development, so Ralph was in his incubator set at the perfect temperature, in a little nest and covered in darkness as much as possible, but we could hold his hand through the doors and we were also lucky to have some very precious cuddles when he was 1-2 weeks old. 

When he was 2 weeks old we were transferred from St. Peter’s to St. George’s neonatal unit in London as he was very poorly with suspected NEC. NEC stands for necrotising enterocolitis and is where tissue in the bowel (small and large intestines) becomes inflamed. This disease can be devastating for premature babies and unfortunately fairly common in babies under 1500g birth weight. Ralph continued to fight for another 2 weeks and we spent all day every day by his side but at 4 weeks and 2 days old it was too much and his little heart stopped beating whilst he was in our arms. 

No words can ever explain the pain of losing your child and we are not sharing our story for sympathy, but simply to raise awareness of premature births and also to raise as much money as we possibly can in Ralph’s memory for this amazing charity that are working towards a future without NEC. NEC is such a complicated and devastating illness for premature babies and their families, and there isn’t much doctors can do to treat it other than rest the babies tummy (no milk) and give antibiotics then in some instances surgery to insert a stoma if their bowel perforates. 

We are very thankful to all of our family and close friends as we have already raised over £2,500 for the charity Bliss in Ralph’s memory but we would love to try and double this for NEC UK. The charity (here https://www.necuk.org.uk) work to support research to prevent NEC in babies alongside a professional medical advisory panel, support bereaved parents of children with NEC and also support families living with children who have lifelong complications due to NEC. The charity is 100% volunteer based (noone takes a salary) and they rely solely on donations. 

For our first fundraiser we have chosen to do a 15 mile walk on Sunday 27 Feb, as Ralph would have been 6 months old on that day and we chose 15 miles as he was 15 weeks early. We will be walking through Windsor because that’s where we first suspected we were pregnant, and we know he’ll be right next to us each step of the way. 

If you could spare even £1, £5 or £10 we would be so grateful. 

Thank you for supporting,

Love Lee, Laura and our tiny Ralph xxx