Jennifer’s gift
How death of Gordon and Sarah Brown’s daughter saved Labour leader John Smith’s grandaughter
WHEN Gordon and Sarah Brown lost their precious baby Jennifer, no one would have blamed them for turning away from the world in their grief.
Instead they vowed to ensure some good came of the heartbreaking tragedy – and this beautiful beaming toddler proves they have achieved just that.
Little Ella McConnachie is alive thanks to the work of the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory, the result of the couple’s selfless vow.
And by amazing coincidence, she is granddaughter of the late Labour chief John Smith, who regarded Gordon as his closest friend in politics.
Mum Catherine Smith, Mr Smith’s youngest daughter, said: “What Gordon and Sarah have done is the most extraordinary gift. They have given us our daughter.” Jennifer was just 10 days old when she died in early 2002. She had been born 33 weeks into Sarah’s pregnancy, weighing 2lbs 4oz, and suffered a brain haemorrhage. There was overwhelming public support for Sarah and Gordon, who was the Chancellor at the time.
They got 13,000 letters of condolence – Sarah replied to every one that gave an address – and over £1million was raised for a fund in Jennifer’s memory. Sarah says: “That’s when my eyes were opened to how many people have been touched by losing a child.”
Sarah set up charity PiggyBankKids, which established the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory.
Sarah says: “In the midst of the sadness, you think about what you can do to change that outcome for someone else. It was a very intense time but we felt very firmly some good had to come out of it.”
The Browns were particularly struck by the unknowns about the causes and consequences of premature birth.
The JBRL looked at what could be done to better identify women at risk of premature birth, and to help premature
In the midst of sadness you think about how to change it for others SARAH BROWN ON WHY CHARITY HELPED HER GRIEF
babies thrive. One particular area involved calibrating the amount of oxygen given to babies in incubators.
It was that piece of research which, almost 15 years later, helped save tiny Ella as she fought for life in an incubator after her birth at 28 weeks.
Mum Catherine, then 41, had gone into hospital for a regular check-up when her high blood pressure indicated she had HELLP syndrome, an aggressive form of pre-eclampsia.
Her condition was rapidly becoming life-threatening and she was given an emergency caesarean section.
Hours later Ella had been delivered and was rushed past Catherine on the operating table straight into a specialist unit.
Lawyer Catherine, from Dundee, says: “My husband Brian said she’s 150g, and I couldn’t work out what that was.
“He said it was 1lb 10oz and I was thinking ‘I don’t understand, how can that be? How?’
“I thought, ‘This is a couple of days, no more. This baby can’t survive.’”
The following day Catherine saw her baby properly for the first time.
“I walked past other babies who were about 3 or 4lbs and they looked tiny, and then got to Ella and she was half their size,” she says. “I never failed to be arrested by how tiny she was – about the size of my hand.”
Finally, after about six weeks, there was real hope that Ella would make it.
“One day the consultant said to me, ‘Are you sorted for a buggy and car seat when you take her home?’ I said no, and she said, ‘Well, why don’t you start working it out.’ That’s when I started thinking about people who had the opposite story.
“I’d met Sarah and Gordon over the years and I was thinking about them so much, thinking ‘I’m so lucky’.”
Catherine read up on the couple’s experience, and that’s when she realised the constant beeping from Ella’s incubator, indicating oxygen level changes, was down to the JBRL’s work.
“So I wrote to Sarah to say: ‘I want you to know how grateful I am. I can seen how your sadness is now helping Ella,’” says Catherine. “I could see the incredible care Ella was getting and she was going to survive, and all because of what Gordon and Sarah had done.”
The Browns were deeply affected by the letter. Gordon had worked with John Smith, who died of a heart attack in 1994, in the Scottish Labour Party, and was Shadow Chancellor when John was Leader of the Labour Party.
Catherine says: “I can’t think of a political colleague my dad was closer to than Gordon.
“He would think it incredibly moving what Gordon has done for our family.”
Ella is now a healthy two-and-ahalf-year-old, and Catherine is helping Sarah and Gordon – who now have sons John, 13, and Fraser, 10 – to raise awareness of the work still being carried out by the JBRL.
Sarah, 53, says: “You don’t wish this on anyone, and you certainly don’t wish it on yourself, but I look for the good I can do, and ensure we contribute to a body of knowledge so more mysteries are unlocked and there are more possibilities for happy outcomes.
“It’s very uplifting to know somebody has gone home with their baby thanks to the work of the lab created in Jennifer’s memory.
“And this translates itself through to many other families who’ve also been able to take their babies home. To know if you can do good for one person it’s enough. But if it can go beyond that then its even better. And having a personal connection – as we do with Catherine and her family – to someone where the outcome has changed, is wonderful.”
She adds:“I’m very grateful for the two boys I do have.
“They make all the difference in the world, but neither Gordon nor I are ever going to forget Jennifer.”
And neither will all the other families whose lives she has touched.
SARAH and Gordon Brown deserve huge credit for their crusade to save babies.
Since they lost their own premature tot Jennifer 15 years ago, they have raised funds and campaigned tirelessly so other people don’t endure the heartbreak they suffered.