Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

We have decided to improve our fitness and raise some money for the Birmingham Womens Hospital Charity at the same time by running the Birmingham Half Marathon on October 21st 2012...Yes thats right, you read that correctly, "Half Marathon".

Now that you've stopped laughing, let us explain why.

As you may know, we have three children, all of whom were born at the Womens Hospital. Josh came into this world as a standard, low risk, healthy full-term baby.

When the time came to extend our family and have another one, we thought it would be just as easy... until we got carried away and doubled up with Erin and Jake. After we got after the initial shock, the pregnancy itself was straightforward (although it was a totally different experience to having 1!!). Extra scans and appointments to go to, consultant care instead of midwife-led but everything was fine and we had it all naively scheduled in line with summer holidays and World Cup matches.

Then, one day, they were suddenly being born. Without warning or planning, 2 months early. Instead of matching outfits and balloons there were 2 lots of all of the medical staff you could think of. Incubators, tubes, flashing lights and alarm sounds- a whole series of One Born Every Minute in one go. Instead of 2 babies in car seats being brought home, there were 2 empty cots at home and us carrying on with life as a family of 3 while the missing extra 2 carried on growing and getting stronger in their little baby greenhouses in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit. 

Every single member of staff was calm, organised, professional and in control at all times- so we barely had to think about what was going on. We got on with the business of learning tube feeds, changing heart rate probes and trying to find tiny little clothes to put the twins in to while they were cared for as if it was something so simple and every day... they were calm and as a result, so were we.

"Jake kept forgetting to breathe today"; "Erin's lung collapsed so we put a drain in"; "Did you watch that programme on Channel 4 last night?".

Thankfully, in relative terms the care that our twins needed was simple- they were born early, but healthy. They had glitches here and there, but their 4 week stay was mostly uneventful. Seeing some of the babies and women being cared for who had complex medical issues while we were there and watching them going home (and sometimes sadly not) made us all the more aware of how lucky we are to have the hospital, it’s amazing staff and facilities on our doorstep.

BWH Charity supports the work of Birmingham Women's Hospital. They fundraise to provide vital equipment and facilities to enable the best possible care for the women and babies of the West Midlands region. Help us to smash our target so that we can show our gratitude and support.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

Thanks, Sarah and Chris Guest