Daniel was born 11 weeks early at Hope Hospital where, during a heart-wrenching first night, the doctors and nurses essentially saved his life and put him on the long and winding road to recovery.

He soon had his first ride in an ambulance when he was transferred to the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Burnley hospital much closer to home.

The staff at Burnley - where he was diagnosed with chronic lung disease - helped take care of Daniel for another ten weeks as he had several ups and downs including blood transfusions, fluctuating oxygen requirements, and difficulty breast-feeding.

The trauma of having such a premature baby was made easier by the care and support of all the medical staff at both Hope and Burnley, and we owe them all a huge debt of thanks!

Unfortunately, many NICU wards are short-staffed at times and need as much help as possible to ensure the highest standard of care for the tiny babies which depend on them, sometimes for their lives.

This is why we are doing a little bit to help by trying to raise money for the two neo-natal wards that helped our son Daniel through some of his toughest times...

Hey, this is Paul, Daniel's dad, with our fundraising update! I successfully completed the tough Great Langdale Marathon in a time of 4h 19m 10s and came 52nd out of 99 finishers.

I would like to say a big thank you to all of the people who very generously sponsored me for the marathon - the pain was definitely worth the gain!

We have managed to raise exactly £2620 pounds, as you can see from the graphic on the right, which is an amazing £100 per mile! The total amount of money raised will be split between Burnley NICU and Hope Hospital NICU in Salford, where Daniel was born.

This will hopefully help to pay for at least little extra care and support for premature and poorly new-born babies at the two units we got to know so well.

I would like to say a special thanks to a few people: Joanne, Daniel and other famliy members who came to support me on the day; Laura, Rob Lochier, Marie Jackson, Kath & Sara for their amazing fundraising; Kev who got me to Langdale in good time; Seamus, Elaine & Gordon, David & Andrew for their generosity.

Thanks again for your very kind support!