LEANNE ROBINSON AND BABY REGGIE

Last year, less than one year after her son Reggie was born sleeping in August 2021, Leanne Robinson, put on her bright yellow T-Shirt and joined friends and family on a daring Three Peaks challenge to raise £4,000.

Leanne suffered severe blood loss when she was 37 weeks pregnant as a result of a sudden complete placental abruption.

She underwent an emergency C Section and doctors managed to stop her severe bleeding.

But sadly, Reggie was born sleeping “but otherwise perfect in every way”.

Since that day, Leanne and her family have dedicated large parts of their spare time to fundraising and recently handed over a cheque for £10,000.

Some of the money will be used to improve critical care services in maternity, while some is going to the maternity bereavement fund.

Leanne said: “What happened to us affected everybody –I think it even affected the staff.

“When we went to present the cheque, they recalled what happened to us – it left a big imprint in their minds too.”

Leanne, a former nurse at University Hospital of North Tees, said she wanted to keep busy with fundraising after the trauma of what happened.

She has also recently taken on a role with the maternity bereavement charity Sands, working at North Tees to help staff with signposting for families.

“I’ve had the experience at James Cook and I hope I can put across what I think would be good for maternity at North Tees as well,” she said.

Leanne’s Dad is chair of the Teesriders Motorcycle Club and they decided to make maternity services at South Tees their charity of the year.

“I wanted to do the walk – that was my plan – but then the Teesriders nominated us as their charity of the year,” Leanne says.

“They have different events throughout the year and helped to get our fundraising up to £10,000, so I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone at Teesriders for everything.”

Thanking the staff who cared for her and delivered Reggie, she added: “They have left an imprint in all my family’s hearts – they are astounding.

“They were so lovely – we couldn’t have wished for better – everything was absolutely amazing under the circumstances.

“They treated us like family.”