My wonderful eldest son Dylan was born in March 2004.  At first all seemed fine, Sarah and I returned home as happy new parents.  A day later Dylan was not right, we took him back into hospital.  What we didn’t know at the time was that he had suffered a stroke, and was in the midst of drifting into a hypoglycaemic coma.  The men and women at The East Surrey Hospital Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) saved Dylan’s life that night – something we will never ever forget.  He was poorly for a while and spent some considerable time in and out of hospital, but almost 4 years on he’s a healthy happy lovely little boy.

BLISS campaigns to improve care for babies born too soon, to small or like Dylan too sick to cope and to ensure they have the best possible start in life. One in eight babies is born premature or sick - that's 80,000 babies every year. Around 17,000 of these babies need intensive care and the figure is rising.

Why Bliss? Did you know that:

£50 could fund a neonatal nurse on a BLISS study day
£25 could buy a complete set of information booklets
£10 could provide telephone support for two distressed families

We are so lucky to have Dylan and if it were not for the work of those remarkable people in East Surrey SCBU he would not be here today.  So in recognition for the SCBU’s all over the UK and the remarkable work they do I would like to raise money for BLISS by running in the 2008 Flora London Marathon.

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: BLISS will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So please sponsor me now!

Many thanks for your support.