Born at 24 weeks, Lily enjoys first school day

“Little fighter” Lily Brewers, five, took her first steps into the world of education at Holy Family Catholic Primary School, in Benfleet, this week – an achievement her family feared might never happen.

Lily was born at just 24 weeks, weighed just 1lb9oz and had to wear nappies that were just 3ins long.

She spent 99 days in hospital, underwent ten blood transfusions and was on oxygen for 11 weeks, but hasn’t let it hold her back.

Her mum, Lisa, 42, of Hope Road, South Benfleet, said: “When she was born, they took her away and we didn’t see her for six hours while they worked on stabilising her and attaching her to all sorts of medicine.

“Kids who are born that early can survive, but, considering all she has been through, it’s amazing she has even got here. She is such a little fighter.”

Lisa, who works at the school as a learning support assistant, had two routine births prior to Lily’s, delivering Charlie, 13, and Isabel, ten, without incident.

But she couldn’t believe it when she went into labour with Lilly at 24 weeks.

She gave birth on September 7, instead of the predicted December 28.

Lisa said she and her husband, Ian, 43, now knewwhat was meant by being on an “emotional rollercoaster”.

She said: “You’d go in there one day and everything would be fine, then the next she’d need more oxygen and she was really bloated.

“When I went in to see her for the first time I burst into tears and I didn’t want to bond just in case anything happened – I know it sounds horrible – and didn’t want her to be baptised in hospital because it meant admitting there was something wrong with her and I wasn’t ready to do that.”

Lisa hopes Lily’s progress will give hope to other parents in the same situation she was in five years ago.

She said: “When you’re going through something like that, it’s hard to think there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

“I’d just like other people to see that, if your child is born early, there is hope.”