Our daughters Pippa and Francesca were born 2 months premature and were cared for in NICU in Manchester. Francesca was discharged after 23 days at Manchester children hospital, but Pippa had been diagnosed with a coarctation of her Aorta and required heart surgery. Because she was born just 1.3kg she needed to grow to at least 2kg before they could operate on her safely. On the 5th of February Pippa was transferred to Birmingham Hospital and on the 7th underwent open heart surgery. We were discharged on the 16th of February after spending 79 days in hospital.

Throughout this time, I witnessed the love, grit and devotion of a mother, was humbled by the incredible work of our doctors and nurses, and met people going through the biggest tests of their lives. I also got to meet my hero's who fixed my little girl’s heart.

A stress we didn't need to worry about was our finances, but many families are not so fortunate, with some unable to be at their children’s bedside when they needed them the most. Over the winter of 19-20 I did my first running streak to raise money for Bliss, a minimum of 20 minutes a day for the duration of Pippa’s stay in hospital [79 days].

Each year I ask people to join in by doing at least 20 minutes of exercise (any) each day, for 79 days, to raise money for the charities dear to them.

We are on year 5 - on day 70 this year we will take on 79KM.