While Warren and I were on holiday in Ibiza my waters broke and I had to be flown to a hospital in Mallorca immediately as there was no neonatal intensive care unit there for the girls to have any chance of survival. After 4 days of bed rest, medication and scans checking that the girls were ok as there was no amniotic fluid left I went into labour. On the 5th October 2012 our precious identical twin girls Lily and Elissa  were born at 27 weeks. Very sadly Elissa passed away after 8 hours and Lily passed away after 9 days. They were so beautiful and perfect but just too tiny to survive. 
Our world fell apart, all of our dreams were taken away from us.
My life will never be the same again, not a day passes by where I don't think of Lily and Elissa, all the ifs, whys and should have beens. I miss them so much.

I want to create something positive from this devastating experience and have decided to undertake a major fundraising challenge in honour of our girls. 
On the 14th June I will be climbing Kilimanjaro to raise money for The Fetal Medicine Foundation.
At The Fetal Medicine Foundation Professor Kypros Nicolaides and his team of international group of experts aim to improve the health of pregnant women and their babies through research and training in fetal medicine. 17 babies a day are either stillborn or die within the first 28 days of life. Over 6,500 babies are dying every year.
The Foundation has supported research and training in the following areas:
- Early diagnosis of fetal abnormalities
- Screening for chromosomal defects
- Intrauterine fetal surgery
- Causes and prevention of miscarriage and stillbirth
- Prediction and prevention of pre-term delivery
- Preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction
- Problems of multiple pregnancies
- Development of safer techniques for prenatal diagnosis

I want to be able to help prevent someone else from going through the heartache and pain we are going through.
With your help and support we can really make a difference so please donate whatever you can.
Thank you so much we really appreciate your support.

Maria