Anyone who knows me will know I’m not ashamed to say I have an addiction to... yep chocolate. I realised I eat chocolate every single day (I don’t drink or smoke so I think it’s ok 😂). Since Freddie was born 11 weeks early and developed NEC (necrotising enterocolitis) it has and will always be a big part of our life due to the long term complications. 

Freddie was one of the lucky ones he survived! Many precious tiny lives are lost due to NEC. We missed so much with our boy he spent the first 8 months in hospital having multiple surgeries. When we finally got to take our boy home he still requires life sustaining fluids overnight. He has a weakened immune system and will always be a high infection risk. We need to find out more to stop NEC we need to save more babies like Freddie and improve outcomes and until that point we need to support the families suffering as a result of NEC and the families that are grieving as a result of NEC.

So I aim to give up chocolate for the 40 days of lent and to be honest having learnt to climb conquer fear of heights to raise money survived NICU without chocolate I don’t think I could have done any of these things. Please donate what you can and think of my poor husband and little ones having to deal with me withdrawing from chocolate I apologise in advance for being a cow it will happen.

I have had the pleasure of being part of a fantastic team at NEC uk (other parents affected by Nec) and watching it grow in numbers being able to support more families and learn more about NEC. We need to raise awareness of NEC and raise funds to support families and in time support research to save precious little ones. 

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