Back in March 2021, Millie and I welcomed Florence into the world. With exhausted smiles, we genuinely couldn’t have been happier but within a few hours that had all changed. By the time Florence was a dinky 4 hours old, she stopped breathing and turned purple. After a few minutes she started breathing again but by the following hour she had stopped breathing another 3 times. Our emotions had gone from sky high to grave concern, worry and quite simply fear. 

The following morning we were told our new baby girl would be placed on a ventilator. We had expected newborn cuddles, kisses and smelly nappies but that was quickly replaced by wires, drips and sedation. We would have taken the nappies in a heart beat. 

Over the next couple of days the incredible NICU staff did everything humanly possible to diagnose and treat Florence. To say the care she received was excellent would be an understatement. For every minute of every day a nurse stood over her bedside monitoring and caring for our newborn daughter. In the midst of Covid, when Millie and I weren’t allowed to be with Florence together, the doctors and nurses treated us with compassion, informed us of any developments and passed us the tissues when things got too much. To put it simply the NICU team enabled us to hold it together when things were falling apart.

It came to light that Florence’s seizures were a result of several brain haemorrhages. The staff on the NICU did every test they could to get to the bottom of her condition and treated her accordingly. It was their expertise and incredible care which resulted in her making a brilliant recovery and means she’ll be shortly celebrating her first birthday! This fundraising is a very small step in expressing our wholehearted thanks to NICU, enable them to look after more poorly babies in the future and ultimately continue to save lives.

The challenge I’ve set myself is to complete the South Downs Century. I’ll be mountain biking the epic 100 mile route, which has over 12,000 foot of climbing, in one day. I’m really touched to be supported in this by my brother Nick, who’s recently welcomed his own new addition into the world, and Rob Robins, a fantastic mountain biker, who will both be completing the ride with me. I best get training!