In April 1990, my sister Joanna gave birth to my niece, Stephanie, 12 weeks early. She was in neonatal care for almost 4 months but was a little miracle.  Fast forward to December 2018, my amazing niece, Stephanie, gave birth to my beautiful great niece, Mollie. Mollie was in a rush, just like her Mummy and she too arrrived almost 12 weeks early, weighing just 1lbs 14 oz.  For almost 3 months, Steph, Liam and all the family travelled every day to see Mollie in Neonatal care at the Bradford Royal Infirmary. It was a long, hard and very scary 3 months for everyone and at the time, it felt very unfair. We only had to drive a few miles every day, therefore we could go see Mollie grow and fight as often as we wanted...some babies and their families are not so lucky. 1 in 7 babies born in the UK will need neonatal care.When this happens parents travel an average of 27 miles to see their babies in hospital. Some parents face a round trip of 100 miles or more on a daily basis just to be with their poorly baby. Parents can't choose the distance they have to travel to be with their babies, but we can. I cannot imagine how hard it must be to have to travel such a distance, especially for parents with other children at home. When I read this, I sat and cried, remembering how hard it was for Steph at the time and how horrendous it must be for others. So rather than cry, I decided to help a little bit. This September people all around the UK are taking on a 27 mile or 100 mile challenge to raise money for Bliss. I chose 54 miles because I have had two special people in my life be saved because of Neonatal care... so I am running the average distance parents have to travel twice! Two lots of 27 miles! Please give what you can, so that we can work to keep families together when a baby is born premature or sick.For more information about Bliss visit bliss.org.uk

Thanks for reading...I hope we can help babies like Steph and Mollie and their mummies and daddies during the hardest times of their lives x Lauren x