A mum who thought she had lost her baby girl soon after she was born is now raising money for the hospitals that saved her life.

Leanne Rowe, of Queenborough, gave birth to her second daughter at Medway Maritime Hospital at 9.25am on December 1.

But just three hours after Olivia was born, she was rushed to the hospital's Oliver Fisher neonatal unit.

Miss Rowe said: "My fiance and I were so excited but, straight away, I knew something wasn't right as Livvy was grunting too much and then her feet went blue and she wouldn't feed so she was rushed to Oliver Fisher.

"She was hooked up to machines to help her breathe but, before we knew it, her lung collapsed and she had completely crashed.

"There were eight doctors around her bed, alarms going off and no one would tell us that she would be OK.

"It was horrible. When she kept getting worse I had prepared myself to be coming home without a baby."

Miss Rowe and her fiance, Matt Champ, were later told their daughter needed to be placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to take the workload off her heart and help other organs function.

"The look on the doctors' faces when they spoke about ECMO made it obvious how serious it was," Miss Rowe said.

"Words like stroke, complications and risks were mentioned but, if she needed it and didn't have it, she wouldn’t make it."

When baby Olivia was deemed strong enough to be moved, she was taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Miss Rowe said: "She was hooked up to all sorts of machines – literally a room of machines to keep her ticking."

The 32-year-old added: "Three weeks went by, two ventilators, gases and drugs that we couldn't pronounce, a load of sleepless nights and non-stop attention from the staff.

"Then, by the grace of God, she eventually started to improve and ECMO wasn’t needed."

The couple were able to return home with Olivia and their one-year-old daughter, Emilee, just before Christmas.

Miss Rowe said the family still had no idea what caused Olivia's collapse, but doctors suspected it could have been sepsis.

The couple are now trying to raise money for the nurses and doctors who saved Olivia's life.

"We decided as soon as Livvy was rushed off that we wanted to help raise money for the Oliver Fisher ward, but when we were sent to Great Ormond Street Hospital it made it all the more important for us to do what we could, no matter what happened," Miss Rowe said.

She added: "We need to do something to make it clear what, exactly, the work these miracle workers do means to the parents who otherwise wouldn’t have their children."

A Just Giving page was set up just over a week ago and it has already raised more than £1,000.

The family will also host a charity day at Queenborough Social Club, in North Road, on Saturday, July 14.

To donate, click here or find out more about the charity event here.