Marathon for my family

Almost eight years ago, my twin daughters were born at Albany Medical Center, in Albany, NY. They insisted on arriving very early -- and born at 27 weeks (normal pregnancy is more like 38-42 weeks), had only a middling chance of surviving without some permanent disability. We didn't know whether they would even make it - when they were born, they needed to be kept very warm -- in an incubator, and they couldn't breathe very well without additional oxygen given to them via a ventilator. They both weighed less than 2lbs each.

They shared a room with more than 40 other children, in incubators, with ventilators, and some with other special equipment needed to keep those babies alive and help them grow.

Without Albany Medical Center's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), my daughters would be unable to learn to read, or ride a bicycle. They might be unable to see, or maybe couldn't process food properly. They could have had any one of a number of disabilities. And yet, here they are, falling off bikes and getting scrapes on their knees. They're learning math at school, and writing... drawing, science. In short, they're doing all the things you'd expect an 8-year old child to do.

But this story is about more than my daughters. Our premature babies were not alone. Albany's NICU accepts babies from the entire range of New York State, and also from rural Vermont and Massachusetts. They simply don't have enough room to accept all the premature babies who are born each year, or enough money to maintain all of the sophisticated equipment needed to keep these children alive, or have enough doctors and nurses looking after the babies.

I'm running the Hudson/Mohawk marathon on the 10th October this year (I'll be just back from Finland two days earlier so will no doubt feel wonderful).

I celebrate that I can do such a thing at all, and I celebrate that my children are alive. But I can sit here and celebrate my family, and some parents cannot.

So please join me in helping all those whose families are affected by premature birth by donating to Albany Medical Centre's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and it'll feel like you're running the marathon with me (I promise you that you won't have to feel the pain!)

There are two ways to donate:

1) Web/credit-card

* go to Albany Medical Center Donation (if you don't trust this URL, go to http://www.amc.edu/foundation/make_a_gift/cash_check_credit.html and click the link to 'give today').

* When you enter the donation details please set:

Designation: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

In Honor of: A & I Kemp

(If you figure out how to do a company match, go ahead!

2) By check/cheque payable to "Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Albany Medical Center" - which you can give me in person, or send to Albany Medical Center at the following address:

Albany Medical Center Foundation
Attn: Nicole Lindell
Re: A & I Kemp
43 New Scotland Ave., MC-119
Albany, NY 12208

Thank you!