Grateful Hornchurch parents threw a thank you charity bash for Queen’s Hospital maternity unit after staff there saved the life of their newborn baby.

Barlow Assenheim nearly died after he was born ten weeks early at the Romford hospital on November 27 last year.

Mum Lisa-Marie said: “To put it simply, without the absolutely amazing midwives, doctors, nurses and consultants at Queen’s, Barlow wouldn’t be with us today.

“They were incredible with him, and with me, throughout the whole thing.

“And the NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] is out of this world.”

Lisa-Marie and husband Jon Keith threw an afternoon tea party – with high-end raffle prizes - to raise cash for the unit on Sunday.

Raffles prizes included a VIP evening from Brentwood nightclub Sugar Hut; a Big Bertie Postbox donated from The Postbox Hire Company; sweet treats donated from Love Cupcake; a signed scrubs shirt from the cast of Holby City;and many more.

The couple raised more than �3,000 for the unit.

Midwife Carol Oates, who delivered Barlow, was special guest at the event, held at Lisa-Marie’s her parents’ home, in Ardleigh Green Road, Hornchurch.