Maggie and Bea were born at 29 weeks and are now thriving

Laura with Maggie and Bea – a year on and they are doing really well Pic: Baby Beat Appeal

Twins born prematurely at Royal Preston Hospital are doing well a year on from their birth.

Maggie and Bea were born at 29 weeks and four days to Laura Beardmore who went into premature labour.

Weighing just 1.3kg each, little more than a bag of sugar, the two girls spent the first seven and a half weeks in incubators, wired up to monitors and fed by tube.

Bea and Maggie at birth in September last year Pic: Baby Beat Appeal

Laura said: “It’s easy to say the girls just wanted to be here early but my God, was it scary.

“Leaving them at the hospital and coming home to an empty house each day was heartbreaking.

“We didn’t sleep as we were too afraid we might miss phone calls that we were needed back with them. It was easy to love them but extremely hard to get attached when I was terrified we might never bring them home.

“The staff, nurses and midwives at RPH were incredible though. The way they looked after us as a family and loved my girls was just something else, which is why we wanted to say thank you by fundraising for Baby Beat.”

Laura and her husband Tony took on the Cross Bay walk for Baby Beat this year and raised £625 trekking across Morecambe Bay.

Laura Beardmore getting ready for the Cross Bay Walk Pic: Baby Beat Appeal

Laura said: “We were going to take the girls, who are now thriving and reaching all their milestones, on the walk with us on our backs but the weather was just too bad so instead, we wore weighted vests to make it that little bit more of a challenge!”

The Baby Beat Appeal helps to provide extra support for the neo natal intensive care unit at Royal Preston Hospital.