A MOTHER today spoke about the diary of hope she began as her baby daughter battled for life.

Heather Pope was born weighing one pound four ounces, just 23 weeks into her mother Pearl's pregnancy.

Doctors feared she would not survive the early birth -- she was not due until November.

But Pearl, 33, refused to give up on her little battler and has completed a daily diary since July 18, charting her progress as she got stronger and stronger.

Pearl and husband Glynn, of Burton Street, Rishton, told of their relief by the bedside of their daughter in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn.

And they revealed they had sent copies of the diary to relatives to keep them informed of the baby's progress.

Of the day Heather was born, Pearl said: "It was such a shock, my waters broke and I was rushed to Queen's Park Hospital. They tried to stop her being born, but there was no stopping her. She was born before the magic 24 week date, and so the doctors said from the beginning she was not going to survive.

"When she was finally born, she was born dead and the doctors spent the next half-an-hour trying to revive her.

"Even though they did, they said she shouldn't have survived and left us under no illusions that she would be well."

Heather was transferred to St Mary's Hospital in Manchester the very next day where was kept on life support.

Pearl said each day had been a struggle and that she had been taking each day as it came.

"The worst day after her birth was when she was only two days old. She turned blue and stopped breathing right in front of me.

"I thought she was really dead. Luckily a specialist was walking past right at that moment and they were able to stabilise her and put her back onto the ventilator and a machine called a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) that keeps her lungs inflated."

After a constant battle baby Heather has gradually put on weight, she is now five pounds 11 ounces, and was well enough to be taken back to Queen's Park Hospital on Tuesday October 15.

Mrs Pope said: "They never talked about her future because they didn't want us to suffer false hope and so when they did tell us some good news we would believe them.

"When they said she could go back to Blackburn was the best day of my life."

Pearl now plans to keep the diary to show to her daughter when she gets older.

She said: "We still have a long way to go but the staff are now beginning to talk about the future.

"They said we would be lucky to get her home by Christmas but now she's on the minimum amount of oxygen they can give her.

"The day she goes home will be the best day of our life."

Glynn, 31, who works at a Carlisle school with children with behavioural problems, said: "I don't really have a best day, each new day she is alive and improves is better than the last."

HEATHER'S grandad Ken lost a camcorder with a video of her when he was in TJ Hughes department store in Blackburn.

After an appeal in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph it was discovered the camcorder had been found in the menswear department and it was returned to him yesterday by Gillian Lawson of T J Hughes.