A COUPLE who lost their baby when the mum was 30 weeks pregnant are planning to use the festive season to raise awareness of a deadly medical condition.

Ashley Spurling, 20, and his fiancee Sapphire Leader, 21, lost daughter Lexi-Mae when Sapphire was rushed to hospital suffering with pre-eclampsia.

The couple, of Lister Road, Braintree, are hoping to raise money for pregnancy advice charity Count the Kicks when Ashley’s brother-in-law switches on the Christmas lights at his home later this month.

Mark Farthing, of 3 Gilchrist Way, Braintree, will include collection buckets with his display when he turns it on at 5.30 pm on Sunday, November 29.

Sapphire said the tragedy unfolded after she woke up and could not feel her baby moving.

She said: “Something didn’t feel right. I hadn’t felt her move as normal.

“I called the WJC Birth Centre at St Michael's Hospital and they did my blood pressure.

“That was at 11am and by half past I was in an ambulance to Broomfield.

“At half past 12 they told me there was no heartbeat. We had a special room that we could be in while I went through the process of labour.

“She was born at 2.55pm on September 25.”

Pre-eclampsia only affects pregnant women and is characterised by high blood pressure, sometimes with fluid retention and a large amount of protein in the urine.

It is more frequent in a woman's first pregnancy and can be fatal for the mother.

Following the ordeal, Sapphire spent four days recovering in hospital.

She said: “The way the midwife put it to me was, I was lucky to be alive.

“My blood pressure was that high that I should have been fitting or having a stroke. My body was shutting down in the back of the ambulance.

“I had not shown any symptoms.

"There can be some signs but it was completely out of the blue.”

The couple said they had chosen the name Lexi-Mae even before they went for a scan at 22 weeks, because they were sure their baby would be a daughter.

Former Tabor Academy pupil Ashley said: “We don’t want anyone to go through what we went through. It’s just raising awareness.

“We have been through a lot in two years together, but that was the hardest.”

For more details of the charity, visit countthekicks.org.uk.