Short version...

We are doing this to raise awareness about premature births and raise money for our local Neonatal unit that will always have a special place in our hearts.

Across the year 2020 me and Daniella along with the help of others will be running, 20 park runs and 20 races.

This year is already going to be tough with my husband Tim's back operation set for February / March time. Also the fact that we can't even run 5k yet let alone a half marathon towards the end.
With Asthma, Endometriosis, being over weight and a possible hysterectomy also trying to hold us back, this year is going to be quite a challenge. But GO BIG OR GO HOME they say right :)

Please help us raise money for this amazing ward. They rely so much on donations.

Also we are looking to get as many people as possible involved. As we book races we will be posting them on the Facebook group page 

20/20 for 2020 for Neonatal at NGH

Please join us on any and as many races if you feel able. I'd love to have many different people joining us and coming together for this amazing charity.

Full Story below..

20/20 for 2020

So here it is, Our pledge for the year 2020.

With the help of others me and Daniella (God mother to our babies) plan to run 20 park runs and 20 races including a half marathon for 2020.

We’re going to be doing this to raise awareness about prematurity and raise money for our wonderful neonatal unit known as The Gosset ward at Northampton General Hospital. The Gosset ward relies heavily on donations to make improvements. 

So here’s the back story..... 

In 2015 our beautiful Elliot was born 4 weeks earlier than planned. We thought he was fighting fit but unfortunately day 2 saw him rushed away from me in the middle of the night with no explanation but “he needs help” Elliot was taken to Gosset ward where they pumped him with antibiotics and saved his life. It turns out Elliot was born with phenomena. His lungs were failing him and he was very unwell. If it wasn’t for the quick thinking team at Northampton General our beautiful clever boy may not be with us today. But instead after just 10 days Elliot and myself were allowed home.

Roll on to 2018, Pregnant with twins my waters broke in the march at 32 weeks. Along side with what happened to Elliot this was one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced in my life. 

After a very short labour and on the morning of 20th March, Harriet and Oliver were born weighing a tiny 3lb7 and 3lb10. 

We had the quickest cuddle with them when I heard a nurse say “we really need to take them now, Oliver’s breathing has changed” 

Two more babies had now been taken away from me for medical care to save their live’s. They were taken to Gosset ward.

Straight after the babies had gone the doctors realised I had Oliver’s placenta stuck, they took me straight to theatre to have it removed. The team were incredible. They worked very quickly and had me back on ward within 45 minutes. Because of having to have a spinal block I wasn’t allowed to go see my babies until 9 hours later. 

Luckily for me the staff on Gosset were amazing, they had sent Tim (my husband) down with photos of Harriet and Oliver and took the time to explain every little detail so that Tim could relay the info to me. They also wrote down their weights and brought them down personally so I had them as soon as I could. 

9pm came and Tim wheeled me up to Gosset. It was probably the longest journey of my life despite being very near to the labour ward I was on. 

The moment I entered the ward, the nurses and HCA’s were so welcoming. Everyone said Hello, asked how I was. And the nurses in the room where my babies were, were very quick to explain everything they needed to despite already going over it with Tim.

Nothing and I mean nothing could ever prepare you for seeing your babies for the first time since giving birth all hooked up to wires, breathing equipment and monitors in an incubator that is saving their live’s. They looked so small, so poorly. They seemed so helpless, with very thin skin. Despite being born at 32 weeks it was still quite see through. It was heart breaking. 

The monitors kept beeping because Oliver’s heart rate kept racing, Harriets monitor was beeping for one thing or another. 

That beeping we soon came to realise will stay with us for a very long time.

It turned out that Oliver, even being the bigger twin needed a little help breathing as he wasn’t quite strong enough to do it by himself. He was also born with fluid on his lungs. So was hooked up to what we learnt was a CPAP machine. 

I was advised not to touch my babies as I had acrylic nails on and with their skin being so thin it could have torn easily. So I just sat there, sat there in the wheel chair staring at these two little bodies in glass boxes. 

Everything raced through my head.

What had I done that brought this on? how could I have protected them better? The answer being Nothing! Nothing I did made my waters break, nothing I did, caused my babies to be here this early, this fragile. And it has taken me a long time to realise it.

After a short time the nurses advised me to get some food and try get some sleep, they could see I was exhausted and explained in the nicest way that if I don’t look after my self, how can I look after them?

Tim was shown to “The Parents room” where parents who had gone through the same thing had made some wonderful donations of food and goodies to keep other parents going in their time of need. 

I was taken back to ward at 9:30pm and didn’t get a chance to see my babies again until 9am the next morning. 

So this was the start of our neonatal journey on the wonderful Gosset ward. I won’t bore you with all the details so will fly over the next part. 

We were there for 4 weeks in total. In these 4 weeks we had to say good bye to our babies every night where we left them for someone else to look after. 

We had to rally around with our amazing friends and family to help with Elliot because we were needed at the hospital. 

The staff had to teach us to tube feed our babies, how to take their temperature every 4 hours, how to change their nappies through portholes on the side of the incubator. 

I was so scared when doing Harriets for the first time, I was shaking. 

Justna (a wonderful nurse) reached through from the other side. Touched my hand, looked me in the eye and said “It’s ok, you can do this”.

Our babies went from strength to strength through their journey on Gosset Ward and I truly believe that is because of the staff who was their family when we couldn’t be there, the other parents before us who so kindly raised donations for the parents room and food shelf to be there, to feed us when we couldn’t get out for food or forgot to take in lunch and to the family and friends who supported us on one of the hardest journeys we have ever been on. 

On 12th April 2018 at 4 weeks old. We brought our babies home for the first time and became a proper family. 

Although we would never choose to go on this journey, we feel so very privileged to have been apart of the Gosset family. And family is what they were to us. We spent the best part of 12-15 hours a day with these people for a long time. They were our saviours. I once heard someone describe Gosset like this....

Neonatal Units are like Narnia, you don’t know it’s there until you need it and once you have left. You can never go back. 

Our journey was pretty straight forward compared to others but hard none the less. These wards could not continue to improve with out the donations they receive, so please dig deep. Donate what you can and let’s make other parents journey through Narnia, as pleasant as it can be.

You never know when you or someone dear to you may need it xxx

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