WHEN Brennan Bowley was born prematurely on October 4 last year, he weighed just 1lb 6oz and his parents faced an anxious wait until he was well enough to go home from hospital.

Now, Brennan is about to celebrate his first birthday and his parents have decided to speak out about their experience in order to give hope to other people with premature babies.

Mother Simone London, from Amesbury, said: “It was really, really hard but you have to keep as upbeat as possible,” she said. “It’s a very emotional time and you just try to put things to the back of your mind. With a baby that tiny you’re bound to be worried and we still worry about Brennan now.”

Miss London, 32, had a difficult pregnancy. She was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 18 weeks and was monitored throughout her pregnancy at Salisbury District Hospital.

Brennan was born by emergency caesarean section at Southampton General Hospital.

“He was taken away from me very quickly and I could just see the top of his nose because he was so tiny and wrapped up in blankets. I didn’t get to see him for 24 hours,” said Miss London.

Brennan, whose due date was January 4, had an operation on his heart when he was two weeks old and then spent a further four week in Southampton. Miss London was in hospital for two weeks with high blood pressure and complications following several infections.

Brennan was moved to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Salisbury on November 21 and he was finally allowed home to Miss London and his father Paul, 34, on February 6.

Miss London, who has three other children, Louie, 13, Thomas, nine, and stepdaughter Summer, six, said: “I don’t drive so I was getting the bus every single day to see him in hospital, even just for a couple of hours.”

She had preeclampsia in all her pregnancies and 11 years ago had a stillborn child. Brennan is still monitored and given oxygen at home in the evenings but his mother says he’s healthy, happy and doing really well.

“He’s just a little star,” she said. “He’s absolutely perfect; he’s crawling and standing up but he’s still so tiny. We call him our little superman.

“It seems like yesterday he was born and now he’s coming up to his first birthday. After all the problems he could have, and realistically should have, had, he’s healthy.

“I know a few premature babies have been born around the same gestation in the last few weeks and I hope this gives other parents hope.”