A mother has spoken of the rollercoaster of emotions she is going through as her premature baby fights for her life.

Emotional rollercoaster - Samantha Millar and son Tom with a picture of Lois, who is at Great Ormond Street Hospital battling septicaemia. Picture: NICK OBANK 41042-4

Born at 23 weeks and six days and weighing in at just 1Ib 1oz, three-month-old Lois Harris now weighs 3Ibs 7oz (1.5kg/482g).

She is fighting septicaemia after already overcoming heart, lung and bowel complications at Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

As she nears her "due date" on Sunday, her mother, Samantha Millar, of Earls Colne, says she is proud of her "little fighter", but has found the last three months understandably hard.

She said: "It's been terrible. I'm quite happy at the moment, but it's just like a rollercoaster you get up in the morning and feel OK, then you get a phone call to say she's in a bad way again and you hit the ground.

"You go rushing all the way to Luton and in the two hours it takes to get there she's better. You just suddenly go all high again.

"It's just an unnatural way for your body to function, and it's really, really hard."

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Published Wednesday, February 16, 2005

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