DOZENS of mums who gave birth to premature babies gathered to share their experiences and celebrate the 'wonderful staff' at Burnley General Hospital.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) celebrated World Prematurity Day on Monday by hosting a coffee morning and welcoming about 30 families families past and present.

Amanda and Stacy Gilpin, from Colne, came to the event with their baby Angela, aged seven months.

Angela and her twin brother Warren were born at 24 weeks after Amanda’s waters broke, and both were born weighing just over 1lb.

Sadly, Warren died shortly after birth at Manchester Children's Hospital, but Angela is managing to survive with the help of oxygen treatment.

Amanda said: “The staff on the unit were absolutely great and always made us feel welcome and helped us enormously when Angela was in the NICU and Warren was in Manchester and we had to spend the time with him.

"They really went above and beyond to provide support for our family even arranging for us to ensure that we spent precious time together with both twins after he passed away in Manchester.

"They always had a smile and time to talk – without them, it wouldn’t have been so easy to get through such a hard time.”

Also at the event was Wendy Stevenson, from Burnley, whose teenage daughter Stacey was born at 25 weeks and was on oxygen for the first 18 months of her life.

Wendy said: “Stacey wasn’t expected to survive but thanks to the staff, she did and despite her health problems, has grown into a teenager who now studies at Ridgewood High School.”

NICU sister, Claire Harrison, said: “It is lovely to see so many people here today and know how having a premature baby has touched them.

"Our staff really get to know the parents and babies as we can be caring for them for anything up to five months and lots of our families have helped with our display of their experiences of prematurity and spending time on the NICU unit – hopefully, this will help other families who find themselves in the same situation."