On Sunday 10 May 2026, Elin and Dylan were joined by three family members to take on the Great Bristol Half Marathon.
For them, this fundraising milestone was an opportunity to give something back to the Bristol Children’s Hospital, for saving their baby’s life, and to The Grand Appeal, for the support they received during the most unexpected days of their lives.
Elin’s pregnancy had been blissfully uneventful. There were no complications, no concerns and each scan offered reassurance that everything was progressing exactly as it should.
When Ralph was born in December 2024, there was nothing to suggest anything was wrong. He appeared healthy and happy. Those first precious hours after birth passed without alarm. But ten hours later, during routine discharge checks, everything changed.
Ralph’s oxygen levels were unexpectedly low. It was so unexpected that doctors initially believed the reading must be a fault with the machine. Another monitor was fetched. The second reading confirmed the devastating truth – Ralph’s oxygen levels were critically low.
He was rushed to the local Special Care Baby Unit, but despite multiple attempts, nothing could raise his oxygen levels or explain why this was happening. When doctors intubated him, they were able to increase his oxygen levels, but it was still far from safe.
The Special Care Baby Unit liaised with Cardiff’s neonatal transfer team to stabilise Ralph as the team were on their way. They suspected a serious heart condition and immediately began conferring with the cardiology team at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital in Cardiff. Ralph needed to be moved urgently but the transfer itself was dangerous. Elin and Dylan were told that he might not survive the journey. But without the move, he had no chance at all.
On arrival at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital in Cardiff, doctors confirmed the diagnosis: Transposition of the Great Arteries, a rare and life-threatening congenital heart defect. Ralph needed urgent, lifesaving surgery, and the specialist expertise required could only be provided by the cardiology team at Bristol Children’s Hospital.
Just one hour after arriving in Cardiff, Ralph was transferred again, this time to Bristol.
The family arrived in the early hours, and within an hour, Ralph underwent his first emergency procedure: a balloon septostomy. This is a life-saving procedure that creates or enlarges an opening in the wall between the upper heart chambers.
At just nine days old, he was moved to Dolphin Ward to prepare for open heart surgery. Further investigations revealed more complications: three holes in the heart wall (known as Ventricular Septal Defect), a bidirectional Patent Foramen Ovale, which carried a risk of strokes and a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), where a blood vessel that should close after birth had remained open.
Far from home, and just a day before New Year’s Eve, Elin and Dylan had no idea where they would stay or how long they would be away. On arrival, they were offered accommodation at Paul’s House, a lifeline they never expected to need.
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Ralph remained critically ill in Bristol’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), fighting for his life.
His open-heart surgery lasted ten hours, a tortuous wait for Elin and Dylan but finally some positive news came their way, the surgery was a success. After five days in intensive care and a few more on Dolphin Ward, Ralph, Elin and Dylan were able to go home.
Everything they family endured unfolded in less than three weeks.
Ralph is now a happy, thriving little boy, meeting every milestone and filling their lives with joy. With oxygen levels so dangerously low for so long after birth, there were fears about developmental delays, but he has shown everyone what an extraordinary fighter he is.
Ralph will remain under the care of a cardiologist for life, but now, his checkups are once a year and closer to home. This is a testament to how far he has come.
Elin and Dylan knew how close they came to losing their son. They know that had they been discharged after birth, he likely would not have survived his first 24 hours.
Now, they want to thank the hospital that saved their baby’s life, and the charity that gave them support, comfort and a roof over their heads during the darkest, most unexpected days of their lives.
As their way of saying thank you, Elin and Dylan took on Great Bristol Half Marathon on Sunday 10 May, raising money for children like Ralph, and families like theirs, going through turbulent times.
