COUGH IT UP

Emma Corr, 41, from Jarrow, had her life turned upside down, so she prayed more than most for a miracle to come along...

- EMMA DUNN AND MADDY BURGESS

Prying my eyes away from my laptop, I glanced at the clock.

I'd been up all night sending countless emails to MP's and national radio stations-basically anyone who would listen to me.

Despite it being early morning, my daughter Harriet's cough echoed through the house.

I didn't know how something so loud and painful could come from someone so little.

It was my driving force to continue, so typing away, I became relentless.

Born on the 17 October 2014 at 3 pm, weighing 8lbs, Harriet was such a beautiful baby girl.

Only, the happy moment got cut short when me and my partner Chris, 40, found out she had been born with a bowel blockage.

I'd never expected anything like this to happen - I had hoped to take home a happy, healthy baby later on that evening.

Up until then it had been a normal pregnancy and she was crying when she came out.

We were terrified as we didn't know what was wrong.

Harriet was kept in at Newcastle Hospital for two weeks after birth as she needed surgery to unblock her bowel.

At the end of the two weeks, sitting in the doctor's office, my mind was racing.

I couldn't help but feel that something else wrong.

'Your daughter has cystic fibrosis,' the doctor explained.

The next hour was like a car crash, we had no knowledge of anything like this.

We weren't even really sure what cystic fibrosis was, so I didn't know how to react.

My heart was racing but I couldn't think of the right words to say.

Is she going to die?

Only, finding out more, cystic fibrosis would cause a sticky mucus to form in Harriet's lungs and digestive system, causing infections and making it hard for her to digest food.

Both me and Chris couldn't believe it.

Naively, after the birth of our first daughter, Nancy, now 10, we expected everything would run smoothly.