We're going back to hospital to say thanks for saving us

KARRIE Walls has no memory of the day her daughter was born.

When tiny Olivia arrived in the world, two and a half months premature and weighing just 2lb 1oz, her mother was unconscious and fighting for her life.

Yet today both mother and daughter are in fine health – and planning to visit the people who brought Olivia into the world with a very special gift.

Now ten years old, Olivia has just raised an incredible 1,300 for the special care baby unit at the Simpson Memorial Pavilion, which saved her life – and which was named after her great-great-uncle, the groundbreaking obstetrician, Sir James Young Simpson.

Mrs Walls said pre-eclampsia symptoms had developed gradually through her pregnancy, before suddenly turning into the potentially fatal condition, eclampsia.

The illness forced doctors to carry out an emergency caesarian, Mrs Walls said: "When Olivia was born I wasn't awake because I was in intensive care, so I didn't even know that I'd had a little girl. I woke up after about two days and a little picture appeared on a screen above my bed and they said 'That's your daughter,' and I thought 'Wow'."

Two days later she was well enough to make her first visit to her daughter in the special care baby unit, where Olivia lay in an incubator, swathed in wires.

"I held her hand and I couldn't believe how small she was. It was fear for the future – I wasn't sure what was going to happen or if she was going to die. Thank God, she didn't have any major problems. The unit were fantastic. Not only did they save Olivia's life, they saved my life too."

The fighting spirit which saw Olivia leave the unit six weeks later has remained, her mother said: "She's always been a bit of a fighter and she still is. I think that's part of her spirit and why she's here. She doesn't think about it that much, but she knows of her start and she says 'I'm here because I fought to be here'. She's like that, you can see it in her personality."

Olivia, who is a member of Edinburgh Athletic Club, decided to show her gratitude to the special care baby unit by taking part in the Bupa Junior Great Winter Run on Saturday, and raised 650 in sponsorship, which will be matched by her dad Colin's employers, Barclays Bank.

The Edinburgh Academy pupil said: "The run was quite hard because it was really cold. I thought I'd like to give something back and I really appreciate what they did for me, because I nearly died."

Sir James Young Simpson, who pioneered the use of anaesthetic in childbirth, was Mr Walls' great uncle, and now the whole family plan to celebrate the unit named after him by revisiting for the first time in several years, Mrs Walls said: "We love the Simpson. They're just very special people."