"Oscar and Felix were with us every step of the way"
Read Oscar and Felix's story, and how their parents have been fundraising in their memory
Story By Liz (Oscar and Felix's mum)
It wasn’t until my 20-week scan that everything started to fall apart. The doctors found something terribly wrong with one of the boys, who we later named Oscar. His heart hadn’t formed properly, and he wouldn’t survive the pregnancy. At every scan, we had to watch Oscar slowly fade until he passed away at 27 weeks.
The pain was unbearable. The only thing that kept us going was knowing his brother, Felix, was healthy.
I carried both boys until 33 weeks when I went into early labour. Felix came out crying, it was the most beautiful sound we had ever heard, especially after the heartbreaking silence of Oscar’s birth. His cries carried all the hope and dreams we never had the chance to imagine for Oscar. Though Felix weighed just 4lb 6oz, he was breathing on his own and feeding well. He was small but healthy.
We thought we’d be bringing Felix home for Christmas, but then in a single night, our beautiful boy was stolen from us.
We had just five precious days with Felix before he developed necrotising enterocolitis, a cruel condition that mainly affects premature babies and which causes the bowel to die.
It’s difficult to put into words the pain of losing both Oscar and Felix. The loss was unimaginable.
And yet, life went on. Just a few weeks later it was Christmas. We tried so hard to make it feel as ‘normal’ as possible for our eldest kids, who were just 8 and 6 years old at the time. We put up a tree, watched them open their presents, but inside, it hurt so much not having the boys with us.
Even now, 10 years later, we feel their loss every day, but knowing charities like Action are dedicated to funding research to help stop premature birth gives us hope for a better future for families like ours.
It’s why, this year, to mark what would have been Oscar and Felix’s 10th birthday, Phil and I have taken on 10 fundraising challenges to help raise money for Action, including climbing the three highest mountains in the UK: Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon
It’s our way of helping to support their important work, but I know it takes us all.
So, if I may ask for one thing this Christmas, please donate to Action. Because any research that could ensure fewer families face the pain premature birth can bring is absolutely worth supporting.