Hi All

As most of you know last year we were over the moon to introduce our baby girl Isla into this crazy world. It wasn't as straight forward as it could of been and at the 20 week scan Frimley Park Hospital noticed abnormality's with her heart. We were referred to the Evelinas Children Hospital in London where she was soon diagnosed with a heart condition known as Coarctation. 

Its fair to say the excitement of the 20 week scan was very short lived and suddenly replaced with fear as we sat with consultants talking through this condition and what it meant. The condition is heavily linked to other issues such as learning difficulties as well as many more. We found ourselves sat there being told our rights to terminate the pregnancy if we wished (this was not even an option in our minds) which is a million miles away from the conversations you expect to be having when you leave home for the scan.

The next few weeks were a bit of a roller coaster ride as we had several more scans, meetings with the consultants and tests. The condition meant that Isla'a Aorta (the tube that supply's all organs with oxygenated blood) had not formed correctly meaning that without intervention, Isla's organs would quickly start to shut down and fail due to lack of oxygenated blood getting to them. 

We had been told that Isla's birth would be happening at the Evelina Hospital as she would require a life saving operation when she was born. She was Born on March 10th (Amanda done amazing!!) and was handed straight over to the Tower Team and was taken off to intensive care where she would would be supported whilst they carried out further scans and run further tests. Within 24 hours the consultants and surgeons were meeting to discuss the operation that they planned to happen the following day. Minutes seemed like hours and days felt like weeks at the time but now looking back on it, it was all a bit of a whirlwind!!

Among the wires and tubes we were lucky enough to have a few cuddles before she went down for her operation which we are pleased to say was a complete success. The recovery of the operation was a bumpy ride with its ups and downs but finally within 2 weeks we found ourselves on our way home.

From the 20 week scan we had the support of a charity we had never heard of prior to this called ECHO. These guys do an amazing job and made a real difference to us. Without them its fair to say the journey would of been far tougher than it was! They arranged for us to meet other parents that had gone through similar times as well as arranging for us to visit the Intensive Care unit which made it feel slightly more familiar and less daunting when we were in there with Isla as well as many other things. 

I feel really lucky to have a place in the London Marathon running for this charity and a chance to give them something back for all there hard work and support they gave us along the way.

I know there are always people somewhere asking for sponsorship but anything you can give would go a long way!