Health: You wonder what my family has done to deserve it

HER baby was the little miracle she didn't think was possible. Liver transplant patient Naomi Stocks had already been through so much physical and emotional turmoil that having another child seemed out of the question.

From family tragedy with the sudden loss of her little sister Zoe in a terrible accident, to a life-threatening condition that needed major transplant surgery, Naomi had survived a rollercoaster spell of desperate lows and rare highs that few would encounter in a lifetime.

After all she'd been through, having another baby - certainly according to the doctors - seemed highly unlikely.

So when news sunk in just after Christmas that she was unexpectedly pregnant with her fourth child - a daughter - Naomi finally allowed herself to look forward to a brighter future.

It was, Naomi now agrees, almost too good to be true.

For in yet another devastating blow to shatter her family, Naomi's baby arrived at just 21 weeks, too fragile and tiny to survive.

"You do sometimes wonder what my family's done to deserve it," she says sadly, as she recalls the nightmare day in April when the baby she instantly named Angel was born far too soon. "Luckily we're a close family, we support each other through the bad times, and there have been a few of those.

"Besides, what else can you do other than just get on with it?"

Which is why, just a few weeks since her pregnancy ended in grief, brave Naomi is organising a remarkable event that will not only celebrate her daughter's very short life, but help support other parents who have to cope with the sickening horror of one day expecting a baby, then the next being plunged into grief at their loss.

In August, four months after burying Angel in a tiny pink coffin alongside Zoe - in a further terrible twist the plot is also the final resting place of their cousin's Kerry Thomson's stillborn baby Connor - Naomi will take centre stage at the pub where she works to have her shoulder-length red hair shaved off.

The fundraising stunt at The Westsider pub in Wester Hailes, jointly organised with Kerry, will leave the 28-year-old mum of three almost bald.

"I'm going to get a number two cut," she says, "so there won't be much left when it's done. I don't even know what colour my hair will eventually grow back in - it's been coloured for so long. I hope it's not grey.I feel this is something positive I can do, it's something to focus on and to help me stay busy."

So touched have those around her been by Naomi's bravery, that several have rallied around to join her raising vital funds for the Simpson's Memory Box Appeal (SiMBA) - the charity that steps in to provide grieving parents such as her and partner Donald, 38, with keepsakes of their lost child.

In what is likely to be an emotionally charged evening just eight days before what would have been baby Angel's due date, friends and pub regulars Scott Whiteford, Craig Murray, Ronnie Mack and Andy McKinnon will join Naomi by undergoing leg and chest waxes, while Greig Robertson, Simon Scarborough and Lee Windrum, are planning sponsored cycle runs in Angel's memory and local firms have donated raffle prizes.

It's a sign of how Naomi's loss has touched the Wester Hailes community, many of whom vividly recall events in November 1997 when her little sister died in tragic circumstances.

"Zoe was playing when she fell," recalls Naomi, who was just 15 at the time. "She banged her head and lost consciousness. Then she just died."

As if that wasn't traumatic enough, Naomi's brother David was left fighting for his life in 2003 after a knife-wielding thug turned on him, stabbing him five times.

The family was still trying to cope when Naomi, of Barn Park, suddenly fell desperately ill. What she thought was a cold was actually Hepatitis B, her liver had failed and she needed an emergency transplant to save her life.

Naomi was already mum to Kieran, now nine, and Summer, seven. Thanks to the transplant and her recovery, she later fell pregnant with five-year-old Zoe, named after her late sister.

But chances of having any more children seemed highly unlikely after a problem with her reproductive system last year meant surgeons had to operate on her fallopian tubes.

Her delight at falling pregnant last Christmas, however, turned to grief when a bout of bleeding in April meant she had to be admitted to hospital. "Staff kept saying I'd be fine, the baby was okay," she recalls. "Then I felt myself giving birth, I could feel the pressure of her head. I was by myself when it happened, the staff were all doing other things. It was heartbreaking."

So far medics have been unable to explain what might have gone wrong - the couple turned down the option of a post mortem, unable to cope with the thought of how it would impact on their perfectly formed baby girl.

As they tried to come to terms with their loss, Naomi and Donald were given a memory box from SiMBA filled with small items relating to Angel: a tiny hat and blanket, some knitted toys, her hand and foot prints.

It was a particularly poignant and difficult time for Naomi's cousin Kerry, who 12 years earlier had suffered the same loss despite carrying baby Connor to full term.

"You wouldn't believe something like that would hit the same family twice," says Kerry.

"I was four days overdue, I'd had this stabbing pain and went to hospital where a scan showed the baby had died. It turned out that the placenta had come away. I nearly died and needed to have a blood transfusion straight away. I wasn't able to have a caesarean section, so had to deliver my baby naturally.

"That's something that you never, ever get over."

Kerry, who went on to have daughter Janie, aged ten, and son David, 20 months, says Naomi's courage has been remarkable. "This is a really difficult time because there are people who don't know what's happened and will still ask about the baby. Then the anniversary dates come along - her due date, for example, which will be really hard to cope with."

To make matters even more challenging, one of Naomi's best friends is pregnant, her baby due the same week as Angel would have been born.

"I'm happy for her, but it's hard too," admits Naomi. "The other day I touched her tummy to feel the baby kicking. I thought I'd be okay, but I ended up breaking down in tears.

"At least if I'm busy organising the charity night and doing something positive, I'm not going to have time to be upset."

n Tickets for the charity night at West Sider Function Hall on August 13 cost 5 and are available from the venue. For details of SiMBA and to donate go to www.simba.workwithus.org

From agony comes hope

Little Zoe Stocks was just 11 years old when a tragic freak accident cut short her young life.

She had been playing in the stairwell outside her Barn Park home when she casually jumped down a few of the steps.

She accidentally struck her forehead against the low concrete ceiling, fracturing her skull and causing a blood clot on the brain.

What had at first seemed like a minor injury turned to tragedy when medics confirmed a brain scan had found negative results.

Her family faced the agonising decision to switch off the machine that had been keeping her alive.

Zoe's death, however, gave life to three seriously ill other children across the UK. Her family - including sisters Amanda, Naomi and Lauren, and brothers David, Billy and Tommy - agreed that the Hailesland Primary School pupil's organs should be donated.

Her gift gave hope to an 11-year-old boy from the north of Scotland who received a right kidney; an 11-year-old girl from London who received a left kidney; and a 16-year-old boy from the West Midlands who received her liver.