Our daughter Piper was born with multiple heart defects which went undetected at birth. We struggled with her symptoms for the first 6 weeks of her life until we got a diagnosis for her. The defects that she had (holes in her heart, VSD, ASD & PDA) were life threatening and Piper required open heart surgery at only 3 months old.

During the time before, during & after surgery we received support from the Tiny Tickers charity. Their support helped us through a terrifying time and the work that they do is so important to families and children with a diagnosis like Pipers.

I will be taking part in the Kiltwalk to raise money for this charity. The funds raised go towards support for parents like us, training for sonographers and provide life saving equipment such as pulse oximetry machines to pick up on heart defects as early as possible to give every baby a fighting chance at life.

A baby is born with a serious heart condition every two hours in the UK and despite congenital heart disease being one of the biggest killers of infants, only around half of congenital heart defects are picked up during routine prenatal scanning.

With your help we can provide a safety net for the 1,000 babies each year that leave hospital with their heart defect undetected, increasing detection rates, improving a baby’s chances of survival and long-term quality of life.