A MUM of twin boys born prematurely at Whiston Hospital has done a sky dive in aid of the Special Care Baby Unit which saved their lives.
Jaime-Leigh Winstanley, from St Helen,s had a normal pregnancy with her sons until 24 weeks pregnant.
Later, at 28 weeks, she was admitted to Whiston Hospital to give birth to her sons – which she was at first reluctant to do despite having contractions due to having a four-year-old daughter on the autistic spectrum at home.
However, eventually, she went in and had the boys via c-section.
Max and Harry McKernan were born weighing 2lb 5oz and 2lb 3oz.
But Harry didn’t breathe for two minutes after his birth and both boys were taken to the Special Care Baby Unit in Whiston Hospital.
Jaime, 26, who now lives in Prescot, said: “I didn’t see the boys until they were six hours old. We got told so many scary things that they were at risk of so many things and then Max at two days old stopped breathing and was taken to Liverpool Women’s Hospital and I couldn’t be with him due to surgery.
“It was so hard, thankfully my partner is the absolute best father in the world and split himself between our daughter Heidi, Max and Harry and me and then Max was brought back to Whiston for eight weeks in total.
“If I had had the boys at home, they would have died, the Special Care Baby Unit made sure we didn’t miss a moment, from first baths, sleeping between both incubators, they saved their lives.”
Last month after several delays due to adverse weather, Jaime-Leigh took on the sky dive in Preston, skydiving 13,000 ft.
She said: “I was really worried going up in the plane but I just told myself if the boys can be so brave to go through everything they went through I can do this.
“Both boys were there and Heidi but all of them just had a lovely day, didn’t really realise why we were there or that I was jumping out of the plane, but I knew why I did it and I do feel proud.
“We all wore purple which is the colour for prematurity and I raised £715 so far.”
The fundraising page is still open, to donate, go to https://mwlnhscharity.enthuse.com/pf/jaimesscbufundraiser?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3e1hfP7_TDpZlJHUkDTPNU7ukjGgHhHUxpZmgAOS-6yw-6pWtzbxt-eOw_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw
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