I ran Marathon as tribute to Ryan's little brother

One entrant in Sunday's marathon was taking part just weeks after being hit by tragedy.

HAVING suffered the nightmare of one premature birth, expectant mum Francesca Snitjer was willing the tiny baby inside her to defy the odds.

Her first pregnancy had been traumatic enough: potentially fatal pre-eclampsia, a baby born at only 26 weeks left fighting for life while she battled kidney problems in a high dependency ward. Surely she had been through the worst? She refused to believe anything else could go wrong.

But when a midwife gently told the devastated young mum that her unborn baby's heartbeat couldn't be traced, her worst nightmare came true.

Tragically, baby Noah was stillborn only a day short of 24 weeks.

That was just over two months ago, yet on Sunday the brave mum carried her grief for her lost child with her as, together with three friends, she pounded the streets of the Capital raising much-needed cash for a charity's research – determined that the loss of her little boy would not be in vain.

"Of course, I knew it would be hard," she says, "but it is something I had to do for him. Even if I had to walk every foot of the way, I was determined to get through it."

On Sunday, each runner ran for his or her own personal reasons, but few could be carrying such a raw grief on their shoulders as Francesca. Nor could there be many who took with them the support of the Prime Minister's wife.

Sarah Brown took time to write to Francesca and her husband Jeroen just days before the race to wish them well.

She wanted to support their efforts to raise money for the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary research arm of charity PiggyBankKids, which she helped launch in the wake of the loss of her own child – daughter Jennifer.

In her touching letter to the couple, Mrs Brown adds: "What a wonderful way to remember your baby, Noah."

The words from Downing Street brought comfort to Francesca as she prepared for the final five-mile section of the relay, pounding the treadmill at her local gym: "It's been good for me," she says, "the gym is one of the few places that's a baby-free zone".

She lovingly strokes her three-year-old son Ryan's hair as she recalls the nightmare sequence of events.

"You think having children is fairly straightforward but it's not for everyone," she says.

Her first pregnancy was fine until she reached 26 weeks and noticed that her ankles and hands had become dramatically swollen – a possible sign of the pregnancy condition pre-eclampsia, a potentially deadly condition in which high blood pressure can affect the blood supply to the baby's placenta.

When her face and eyes puffed up too, checks found that her blood pressure had soared and her protein levels were up – another key sign. But what happened next caused Francesca even more worry.

"We lived in West Lothian at the time and the nearest neonatal unit was in Edinburgh – and it was full," says Francesca.

She was taken by ambulance to Glasgow where Ryan was born by emergency Caesarian section. While her tiny 1lb 15oz son fought for life in the special care baby unit, Francesca became embroiled in another medical drama.

"My kidneys deteriorated badly as a result of the pre-eclampsia," she says.

"I was in high dependency for two days and I didn't get a chance to hold Ryan until after that. It was a terrible experience."

Ryan was three weeks old when he underwent surgery to seal a duct between his heart and his lungs. By the time he was ready to go home with his parents he was three months old, but still only just over 7lbs, and had undergone 12 blood transfusions.

Later he would become the "star" of a Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service campaign aimed at encouraging more people to donate blood.

But the drama was by no means over yet. Ryan was just four days old when doctors confirmed an anomaly in the couple's blood types that could affect future pregnancies.

"We're platelet incompatible," explains Francesca, 32, of Ferry Gait Drive, Silverknowes. "The doctors explained that my platelet antigens are both negatives and Jeroen's are both positive.

"They said that at a certain stage of development, my body might start to attack the baby."

After taking the heart-wrenching decision to try for a second child, Francesca was only half way through her 19th week when she showed worrying signs of pre-eclampsia again.

She spent a miserable four weeks in hospital, separated from her little boy and confined to bed – focusing on getting through each day to give her unborn child a better chance of survival outside the womb.

Sadly, her condition deteriorated on March 10 when her blood pressure and protein levels soared once more, and baby Noah's heartbeat faltered and then stopped.

"I delivered him naturally which was very difficult," she says. "He was perfect and we were able to spend some time with him, which was very comforting for us. But we were quite numb. What was happening didn't really sink in." The couple then had to break the news to Ryan that his baby brother wouldn't be coming home.

"We have photographs and we talk about Noah a lot, so he knows he's a big brother," says Francesca. "Thankfully he's too little to understand."

Now Francesca and Jeroen, 35, a bank manager originally from Holland who met his wife on a trip to Scotland, are throwing their efforts into making sure their son's brief existence isn't forgotten.

"Since we lost Noah the marathon has given me something to focus on," says Francesca. "I know it's only a few weeks since it happened and we've only just had it confirmed that pre-eclampsia was the cause, but I felt I had to do it." The couple aim to raise at least £3000 for the charity – their personal legacy from the little boy they had for such a short time.

"It's been hard but it's something we had to do," adds Francesca. "It's for Noah."

• To make a donation to the fund, visit the website by going to www.justgiving.com/jeroensnitjer.


RESEARCH GOES ON

THE PiggyBankKids charity was founded in 2002 by Gordon Brown's wife Sarah after the premature birth of their daughter Jennifer.

It backs a range of projects, and supports the Jennifer Brown Research Fund, which aims to solve pregnancy problems and save newborns.

Researchers at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary are looking into four key areas, including pre-eclampsia.

• www.piggybankkids.org