On the 26th of October 2012 we were blessed with a gorgeous prince who we named Rayaan. He was born two and a half months preterm but was doing amazingly well and we were told by the doctors that we should be able to take him home on his due date. A week into Rayaans birth he started needing respiratory support, doctors said as he was born preterm this is normal for some babies as their lungs aren't fully developed so need some support. Doctors also carried out different tests to see if Rayaan had any sort of infections, but everything would come back clear which indicated that other than him needing a wee bit of support to help him breathe, there wasn't anything wrong with him. Rayaan had reached his due date but things had not got any better as we had hoped, he was needing a lot more respiratory support and his heart rate was always high which indicated he had some sort of problem with his heart. Every week we would sit with Rayaans doctors and consultants talking about what could be wrong with Rayaan and things they were looking to do to diagnose his condition, our dream of taking our prince home was developing into worry as we didn't know whether we would ever be able to take him home. A month into Rayaans birth on the way home from visiting him we got a call from doctors asking if we could come back to the hospital as they have found something in the DNA blood test they had done on Rayaan. The twenty minute journey back to the hospital seemed like forever, worried and not knowing what the doctors would say, I was crying all the way there as I just knew it wouldn't be good news. Finally after arriving back at the hospital, we waited for the consultant in a room, all negative thoughts running through our heads. The consultant told us Rayaan was diagnosed with Trisomy 21, he had Down Syndrome. Our initial thoughts were how long would Rayaan survive? As we didn't know anything about the Syndrome, we were completely unsure as to what was lying ahead of us. We had so many questions that we asked the consultant and thankfully all the answers were positive, it was a huge shock to us but at the same time we were happy knowing that even though Rayaan may need respiratory support for a while, we would still be able to take our bundle of joy home. After this Rayaans condition just got worse, psychically you couldn't tell Rayaan had Down syndrome but internally things hadn't developed too well. Rayaan went through a lot, tests, cannulas, ventilator, scans, X-rays, bowel op etc. June 2013 Rayaan started having seizures in which his oxygen support was reaching a 100% and doctors were having to trying many different things to try and keep Rayaan alive, this is when the consultans sat with us and said what we were most dreading. They were unable to figure out why Rayaan was not getting well and could not see him survive for long. We were asked to help Rayaan pass away without any pain and peacefully as the seizures he was experiencing were causing him a lot of distress and pain as well as damaging his organs. On 13th June 2013 our angel grew his wings but left us with the most cherishable memories ever, seven and a half months of happiness, smiles and cuddles!

We had heard of Down Syndrome but never thought we would experience it like we did, only when Rayaan was diagnosed we started researching into it and found different charities who support and help kids with Down Syndrome.

Rayaan lived a short life but there are many people with Down Syndrome that lead longer normal live.

We are hold a charity event at 

Kebabish Original Edinburgh on the 27th Oct 2014 at 6pm to raise money and awareness for kids who are diagnosed with Down Syndrome.

For more info please email on husnan@ko-edinburgh.co.uk