A couple who founded a charity to support families with babies on the Neonatal Unit at King’s Mill Hospital have been thanked for raising more than £100,000.

Clare and Neil Harris, of Clipstone, started the Emily Harris Foundation in September 2008 in memory of their first baby, Emily Harris, who passed away from a serious heart condition aged five months.

She spent the majority of her short life on the Sutton hospital’s neonatal unit.

September marked nine years since the charity was founded. Since then it has raised £100,000, which has gone towards improving the experience for families on the unit and to fund further staff training.

Clare and Neil were thanked by Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust at a special event, where the trust’s chairman, John MacDonald, presented them with a cake and a certificate.

Clare said: “We received wonderful care from the staff on the unit and we knew we had the opportunity to give something back.

“When Emily passed away we had a collection at her funeral and we donated the funds to the unit. We saw the difference that the funds could make to families who found themselves in a similar situation to us and that triggered us to do more, which is when we set-up the foundation.”

One of the first things the charity did to support families on the unit was to provide bags filled with useful goodies for new babies — and these are still provided to new parents today.

Funds have been used to buy chairs designed to help new mothers breastfeed, supply bus tokens for new parents to easily get to hospital, give new parents a voucher to enjoy a meal together at a local restaurant, and to fund further training for staff on the unit that isn’t provided by the NHS.

Head of corporate affairs and company secretary, Shirley Higginbotham, added: “We are incredibly grateful for the support that we receive from the Emily Harris Foundation and we know that the improvements that have been made to our services are very much appreciated by families who use the unit and by our staff.

“We would like to thank the community for their generous donations to the foundation and congratulations to Clare and Neil on achieving this fantastic milestone.”

For more information about the Emily Harris Foundation, visit www.emilyharrisfoundation.org