Mums and babies charity Baby Beat, based at the Sharoe Green Maternity Unit at the Royal Preston Hospital, has received a grant of £25,000 from the Eric Wright Charitable Trust after being chosen by the Construction division of the Eric Wright Group Limited as their charity of the year.

The company’s employees were asked to nominate causes to receive charity of the year status. Baby Beat was nominated by an Eric Wright Construction After Care Operative, Stuart Haigh. Stuart and his wife Jade’s now thriving five-year-old daughter Stella was born at only 22 weeks and so spent her first months of life in the unit’s NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), which is also Lancashire and South Cumbria’s regional specialist NICU, providing care for the most premature and poorly babies and their families from across both counties, and which is supported by Baby Beat.

Joanna Allitt, fundraising manager for Baby Beat, said: “We are very grateful to both Stuart for nominating us and to the trustees of the Eric Wright Charitable Trust for accepting the nomination. The award is very generous and will do much good.”

Baby Beat funds specialist equipment, patient services and comforts, clinical care, local research, additional training and staff welfare projects at the Sharoe Green Maternity Unit so that its maternity and gynaecology teams can offer the best possible outcomes for babies and mums in the Central Lancashire and Chorley area and through its NICU, wider afield. For further information on Baby Beat’s work and how to support, visit www.babybeat.org.uk