A FOUR-year-old boy is "honouring the memory" of his two brothers who died during pregnancy.

James Donnellan-Murphy, from Prescot, was one of three triplets sharing the womb of mum-to-be Bernadette with identical twins Joseph and Niall.

But during pregnancy Bernadette developed twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) and the twins died on October 20, 2013 at 16 weeks.

In memory of his brothers, James completed the Movember 1km run in Croxteth Park in Liverpool last month and the Mini Santa Dash run in the city on Sunday.

He raised £500 in both events for The Wiseman Trust, a charity which funds research for TTTS.

Bernadette, 29, said: "After Joseph and Niall died there was a chance I would have had to go into labour early and James would have been extremely premature.

"But I managed to stay pregnant for 37 weeks when I was induced.

"We have Joseph's and Niall's ashes in our home so James knows all about them.

"I ran the Mini Santa Dash with James which was really good to be with him.

"He is honouring his brothers' memories because the twins are living on through him."

James was born at Whiston Hospital on April, 2, 2014 with a true knot in the umbilical cord but Bernadette says he is now "happy and healthy".

He likes superheroes, especially Spider-Man, and "loves to draw whenever he can".

For identical twins that share a placenta- which happens in most cases- it brings bloods and nutrients to the babies' umbilical cords.

Between 10 to 15 per cent of identical twins who share a placenta suffer from TTTS.

With TTTS, blood vessels within the placenta are shared, allowing blood from one twin to be passed to another.

This leads to one baby receiving too much blood, putting pressure on their heart and the other one not receiving enough blood and in danger of dying from severe anaemia.

James was born from a different placenta from Joseph and Niall so was not affected by TTTS.

Today, Friday, is World TTTS Awareness Day which aims to raise awareness of the syndrome.

Primary school teacher Bernadette added: "There is not a lot of research going into TTTS at the moment because it is so rare.

"I was offered laser surgery at Liverpool Women's Hospital after my first specialist TTTS appointment but it was too late for me to have it done."

Bernadette has also been a member of Facebook support group TTTS Grief Support which has been a source of comfort to her since Joseph and Niall died.