Caroline completed the Edinburgh Marathon in 4 hours and 20 minutes and raised £2350 for Group B Strep Support. Caroline tells her story here:-
“My name is Caroline Nettleton, and I am a Mum of 2 amazing boys. Joel and Evan.
On 31 January 2015, 13 days late, our gorgeous second son Evan was born, weighing a whopping 9lb 2oz. We fell in love instantly, and he was initially doing well; the following day, he was discharged. I was pretty poorly, so I wasn’t discharged from the hospital until 4 February. He wasn’t looked at again, and despite me telling medical staff, he wasn’t feeding correctly, we were both sent home. Don’t get me wrong, we wanted to be home, but I knew something wasn’t right. Evan didn’t wake for feeds that night – I had to wake him to feed, which he did reluctantly.
Our fantastic community midwife visited the next day, 5 February, and immediately noticed Evan’s ‘yellow’ colour. She took a blood sample which Paul took to the hospital, and less than 2 hours later, we were asked to go back to the hospital. Leaving Joel, who was two at the time, was emotionally challenging, but for Evan to get better, we had to go.
Evan’s jaundice level was 384 (350 is deemed safe), and he should have gone under the heat lamp. For one reason or another, this didn’t happen, but during the night, I fed and fed him, and in the morning, his level was 296 – home time? Not quite. Evan’s infection levels were registered at 15 (2 is deemed healthy enough to go home). Evan was given antibiotics for 48 hours, which turned into five days, and during this time, slowly, his infection level came down. 15, 13, 11, 6, 3 and eventually 0.
On 11 February, at ten days old, we took Evan home. We could not have been happier, nor could Joel. At our 6-week check-up, our Dr told me that the infection Evan had had, causing the jaundice was Strep B and that he was a lucky baby boy. His birth weight saved him.
Evan is seven now, and wow, what a boy!! Watford FC mad, and such a sweet, kind, polite boy.
I ran the Edinburgh Marathon 2022 to raise funds for GBSS as too many people do not have a happy ending, and this charity does so much for families. I set myself a target of £2675, the number of days old Evan will be on the day I did the Edinburgh Marathon!”
Your can support Caroline’s fundraising here https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/caroline-nettleton
