Lucy’s HB Marathon effort for Starship Foundation & The Neonatal Trust

Just over five years ago I gave birth to extremely premature triplets Molly Joshua and Cameron at 25 weeks gestation. They weighed between 720g and 790g. We spent 3.5 months in hospital with the majority of the time spent in Level 3 (high risk) at Auckland NICU. We were lucky that Molly and Joshua had relatively uneventful NICU experiences but our youngest son Cam suffered from Bacterial Meningitis, various infections, Necrotizing Enterocolitis and numerous hernias along with a other less serious complications. Cameron was not alone in fighting for his life. The fragility of life for premature/ sick babies is so evident in NICU. We were fortunate enough that Cam battled through of his challenges in the care of the incredible hospital staff at Auckland hospital. The dedication and skill levels and caring nature of the medical teams astounded us, and the facilities and equipment were amazing.

We discovered just how expensive both the neonatal equipment and treatments were and also how badly the wider Starship hospital needs funding in order to care for kids from all over the country. Ongoing research funding is also crucial. Molly has spent time at Starship whilst being treated for Osteomyelitis at age two and we were again blown away by the care of the staff, but appreciated the stress the children’s hospital is under.

We are so grateful we now have three healthy five year olds and a seven year old. After a few years of being so busy raising Molly Josh and Cam and their older brother Harry, I have decided to run the HB marathon on 18 May 2019 in fancy dress to raise funds for both Neonatal Trust and the Starship Foundation to give something back to two amazing charities that help save and improve the lives of children who live across NZ everyday. I have not run a marathon for 11 years so am likely to find the course and the fancy dress challenging, but am looking forward to having some fun raising money for two great causes. PLEASE SUPPORT ME!