Mum, 40, gives £4,000 donation after hospital saved her premature baby (From Surrey Comet)

Hersham mum, 40, gives £4,000 donation after St Peter's Hospital saved her premature baby

6:00am Saturday 9th March 2013 in News By Laura Proto

A mother from Hersham celebrated her 40th birthday by donating more than £4,000 to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Nicu) at St Peter’s Hospital.

Alison Finch, of Brampton Gardens, whose milestone birthday was on Monday, March 4, also asked family and friends to make donations to the hospital’s Early Births Fund rather than give gifts.

Ms Finch’s daughter, Hope, was born nearly 15 weeks premature in July 2011 and was immediately transferred to Nicu, where she stayed until November 2011.

The money donated comes from sponsorship of a 20-mile walk by Ms Finch’s family to Chertsey from St George’s Hospital, Tooting, where Hope had life-saving bowel surgery at just five weeks old.

The donation is on top of a further £1,000 raised from a fundraising picnic for Hope’s first birthday in July 2012.

Ms Finch said: “Hope has fully recovered from a follow-up operation a year ago and is now a thriving, happy 19-month-old child.

“All the consultants, doctors and nurses in the unit have an abundance of medical expertise and knowledge in caring for extremely premature babies but, above and beyond this, showed kindness and compassion throughout Hope’s stay.”

To read more of Hope’s story and to make a donation, visit justgiving.com/walk-of-hope.