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Couple grateful to charity

Thursday May 15th 2008.   Posted: 09:30

Holly and daughter Stevie

A BT Global Services couple are raising awareness of a charity that helps with a pregnancy condition that could have cost the life of their daughter Stevie.  

Bid manager Holly Phillips suffered from the condition placenta previa major throughout her pregnancy - and has thanked Whipps Cross Hospital in London and the charity Action Medical Research for saving her baby.

To publicise the condition, Holly and her partner Keith Johnstone, a BTGS international voice specialist, have been allowing local journalists and photographers into their Chingford home to meet Stevie and hear how they both survived a life threatening pregnancy in 2006.

Placenta previa major is a condition where the placenta lies low in the womb; as the baby grows its weight causes the placenta to bleed.

At 30 weeks Holly was admitted to Whipps Cross and spent five weeks in the maternity wing on bed rest. At 35 weeks she was rushed to the high dependency unit and Stevie was born by emergency caesarean.

“Doctors knew I wouldn’t be able to carry Stevie to full term and they had been giving me steroid injections to help her lungs develop quickly,” said Holly. “The injections and the fantastic nursing she received in special care meant that she recovered quickly and was back with me within 24 hours.

“Her special care bed was funded by Action Medical Research’s Touching Tiny Lives campaign. Without that funding Whipps Cross would have sent her to another hospital. I’m eternally grateful for that funding and the support pack I received from Touching Tiny Lives. Stevie is now 18 months old and developing normally.”

Holly’s uncle, Glen Ashby, a BT Global Services business sales manager, is entering this summer’s London to Paris cycle ride to raise funds for Touching Tiny Lives as a thank-you for all the help they have given Stevie and her family. If you would like to support Glen, contact him via e-mail.

Information provider: Group Communications

Review date: 15/05/09