I never thought I would be writing this.

Our baby girl was born 14 weeks early, at just 26 weeks. We have been trying to have a child for 13 years. We went through three rounds of IVF, heartbreak after heartbreak. She was our last embryo — our last chance. And she arrived far too soon.

Instead of taking our daughter home, we found ourselves split between hospital units. Our baby is in a Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit at Medway Hospital, fighting an infection and fever, with her lungs, brain, and other organs still not fully developed. Every single day feels like a battle she has to win again.

My wife is also in hospital and unwell after everything her body has been through. I run between two wards every day — trying to be there for my wife, then running back to sit beside an incubator where my tiny daughter is fighting for her life.

It has been 10 days since she was born.

We still haven’t been able to properly hold her.

We haven’t been able to hug her.

Most nights, I sleep on a chair when I can.

I haven’t eaten properly in days.

Both my wife and I have had to stop working completely. The statutory pay we receive is around £187 a week each, which doesn’t even come close to covering our £1,700 rent, let alone bills, food, travel to the hospital, insurance, and basic living costs. The expenses keep coming, even though our world has stopped.

I feel broken writing this. As a father, watching your child suffer and knowing you can’t fix it is unbearable. Watching your partner suffer at the same time is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

We are asking for help simply to survive this period — to keep a roof over our heads, to get to the hospital every day, and to stay close to our baby while she fights for her life.

If you are able to help us in any way, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. If you can’t, even sharing our story means more than we can put into words.

All we want is the chance to one day bring our baby girl home.