The father of a baby girl who was born at just 27 weeks has completed an enormous sponsored cycling challenge to thank The Sick Children’s Trust, Bliss and Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust for their support whilst his daughter was receiving lifesaving treatment in hospital, 60 miles from home.
Chris Penfold, 37, has raised £5,610 for three charities close to his heart by running and cycling the same route his premature daughter travelled in order to receive the lifesaving care she needed.
Dad Chris, from Chelmsford, was terrified when his wife, Laura, 32, went into labour 13 weeks early at home on 28 December 2016. Less than two hours later their daughter, Willow, was born at Broomfield Hospital weighing only 2lb 10oz. She was placed in a plastic bag to keep her temperature high and rushed to the special care baby unit (SCBU). Struggling for every breath, doctors made the decision to intubate tiny Willow and place her in an incubator before she was transferred 60 miles away to The Rosie Hospital in Cambridge for lifesaving treatment on the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). It was at this point that The Sick Children’s Trust stepped in and offered the traumatised parents free ‘Home from Home’ accommodation at Chestnut House, located just moments from where Willow was receiving lifesaving treatment on NICU.
