“We were told that we would never bring him home” – Sarah’s story #ByYourSide

My son Zayne was born at 24 weeks. He weighed 449 grams and had a really rough NICU ride.

He had sepsis four times, a bleed on the brain and we had to have a chat about potentially ending his life chat twice, as they just couldn't get him off the ventilator.

We had set back after set back - it was really like riding a rollercoaster in the dark. Zayne had three courses of steroids to fight lung disease. We had two failed attempts as he kept catching infections, and we were told we would never bring him home.

He fought through every hurdle that was thrown at him and on his third course of steroids, they managed to wean him off the ventilator.

NICU is one of the scariest places. You never knew what you would walk into each day or what would happen. We took every day at a time and I'm forever grateful for all the doctors and nurses at Royal Oldham Hospital because they got us where we needed to be.

Zayne did come home on home oxygen and still needs it. He has a few additional needs but other than that he's perfect.

On the darkest of days, the NICU does seem really hard but don’t ever feel like you are alone. There is help out there - my partner and I both had counselling and speaking to someone else really helped with my emotions.