I am a Consultant Neonatologist and researcher at Imperial College London. I lead neoWONDER and am supported by an Advanced Fellowship awarded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). I completed my PhD at Imperial College, using data from the National Neonatal Research Database to study the epidemiology of Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC), a serious bowel condition that affects preterm babies. My research continues to focus on the application of ‘real-world’ data to help identify neonatal interventions that will improve lifelong outcomes.

I am Julia and I am the mother of George, who was born premature at 27 weeks in March 2019 at home. As a mother of an ex-premature baby and after having spent over 3 months in a neonatal unit, I always have questions in mind about the development, education, mental health of my son and every other premature child. This is one of the reasons I decided to get involved in neoWONDER to get answers to all these questions for myself, other parents, and the medical society.

Hi I am Tahira. My son was born at 24 weeks 5 years ago. Being both a mother of a child born extremely premature and a paediatric doctor, I can relate to the struggles parents may face. He received very good care on the neonatal unit but since discharge from hospital, we have found it difficult to access the support and services he needs. I want to participate in neoWONDER to raise awareness of these challenges and also make my contribution to improve long-term outcomes of extreme premature babies.

I am a proud mother of three wonderful boys. My eldest two, now almost 11 year old twins, were born at 27 weeks gestation, spending almost 3 months in a neonatal intensive care unit before coming home. Significant amount of time spent in and out of hospitals for ongoing concerns, monitoring and intervention greatly influenced my choice of career path working in the early years foundation stage. I fully support the neoWonder’s aim to ascertain the long-term outcomes of preterm birth and inform neonatal interventions. I feel privileged to be involved and welcome the opportunity to contribute to its future success.

I'm Lisa, a very proud Mum to Jack aged 15 and Theo aged 3 who was born at 25 weeks in 2017. Prior to Theo being born, I was a Nurse, I now use my experience to advocate for families and children born early. We spent 123 days in NICU and quickly realised that home is not the end of the journey, but the beginning of a new and very different one. Theo has ongoing sensory and developmental difficulties as a result of his prematurity. I am very passionate about learning, understanding and raising awareness of the long term impact of prematurity and improving outcomes for families and children.

Hello, my name is Juliette and I am a former neonatal patient. My twin and I were born at 28 weeks in the late 1990’s due to complications from twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. We both required intensive neonatal care during the first few months of our lives. My twin suffered from intraventricular haemorrhages around the time of birth which led to her developing complex health needs and she passed away at home at the age of 12. All of these experiences have led me to train as a children’s nurse and fostered a passion for advocating for those born prematurely through networking and research. I am bringing my experiences to the neoWONDER group to help the views of those born prematurely to be heard.