I've decided to pick up my old running shoes to run the Reading Half Marathon next year - to help raise funds to purchase a brand new incubator for the Buscot Ward, giving premature and poorly babies at the RBH the best possible start in life.

As most know, my eldest, Joseph was on the Buscot ward for 6 weeks, having been born 10 weeks early. He was pretty poorly, and after 6 weeks was found to have some heart defects. We spent another 7 weeks in Southampton where he had heart surgery. He's now absolutely thriving, and running around being cheeky like other 4 year olds.

We will forever be grateful for the team on Buscot for saving Joseph's life, and for being an incredible support for us in such a difficult time - all while Covid just started kicking off.

I'd be really grateful if you could sponsor me to raise money for them to help other little ones like our little Joe Joe.

Here's how Babies in Buscot help:

Babies in Buscot Support work focuses in 4 main areas of activity - keeping Buscot families "SAFE":

Support - providing families with independent emotional support while their baby is on Buscot, and beyond.

Awareness - we help inform parents about what to expect from a stay on Buscot by providing written information and we raise awareness of issues related to prematurity or sickness at birth.

Facilities - we refurbish facilities and accommodation on the ward to provide a more homely environment.

Equipment - We fund state of the art equipment for the ward including incubators, cardiac monitors, ventilators, phototherapy units and much more.

In addition we help families by providing gifts to improve their experience especially around key dates such as Christmas.