Walk for Prems: Shantelle Weber grateful for every day with son Bowie after eight-month hospital stay

Shantelle Weber endured months of not knowing if her little boy would live as he laid in the neonatal intensive care unit hooked up to wires and tubes. But on Sunday, the Perth mum will walk hand-in-hand with her happy and healthy toddler Bowie to raise vital funds for premature babies and children. Now three years old, Bowie was whisked away to be intubated when he was unexpectedly born at 24 weeks, only weighing 623g and his lungs so underdeveloped that he couldn’t breathe on his own for 10 weeks. Ms Weber said the seriousness of Bowie’s condition really hit home when the doctors told her that if the oral steroids did not work to aid his breathing, there were no other options. “It didn’t really occur to us until a few weeks in that not many babies are in this position,” she said. “He was the most unwell baby there at that time so it really hit us hard.” His parents were finally able to bring him home after an agonising 243 days in the hospital. Ms Weber said she would not have been able to get through the “skin crawling” feeling of not knowing when she would be able to take her baby home without the support of the Life’s Little Treasures Foundation. The charity provided goodie bags in the neonatal intensive care unit as well as help for the parents including online support groups that Ms Weber attends to this day. “This is our birth experience — we can’t change what it was, we can’t change the darkness that was involved with it but organisations like Life’s Little Treasures bring so much light and joy,” she said. She will be among the hundreds of families in Perth joining in the Walk for Prems, which raises funds for the foundation. It’s a simple joy she didn’t know she’d be able to get when Bowie was born premature. “I used to hold him right on my chest and I still feel him there,” Ms Weber said. “Now I look at his face and think I remember when we didn’t know what your face looked like without any tubes or adhesives on it. “We’ve really learnt not to take anything he does for granted.” This year marks 20 years of the Life’s Little Treasures Foundation with the fundraising walk to be held at Burswood Park on Sunday.