Skip to content
Borne
Instagram Twitter Facebook Youtube

Donate now

  • Home
  • About Premature birth
  • About Borne
  • What we do
  • Support us
  • Latest news

Author: Fiona Mylchreest

Fiona Mylchreest was born in the beautiful middle of nowhere in Scotland, and stayed there for 18 years. She went to teach in China and then to Oxford, where she read Classics and English. She planned to be an art historian, but gave it up and went to work for a medical charity in Calcutta until she ran out of money. She joined the Overseas Development Administration (now DFID) where she managed aid programmes to India, negotiated EU banana policy and ran the programmes for Poland and Romania, during which she did an MSc in Culture, Gender and Society. Secondment to the Foreign Office as Private Secretary to Malcolm Rifkind and then Robin Cook was fascinating but frustrating so she left and went to Chelsea School of Art. Photography and combined media was wonderful but abandoned instantly when her first son Finn was born at 28 weeks. After three more premature babies and about a person-year in NICU, she started a BSc in Health and Social Care, finished in Josephine Barnes Ward waiting for her fifth baby. By this time, Finn had been diagnosed with autism; his catatonia responded only to music therapy, so the family began supporting the music therapy department (and still are, 14 years on). While the fabulous five are at school and college, she runs a charity which manages a college for 19-25 years olds with severe autism and a respite home. In-between times and all the time, she is mother of five, carer of Finn, joint owner of a escapologist tortoise and an energetic and water-mad black spaniel. She supports Borne because she is eternally blessed to have five unique children who survived prematurity and so that other babies are spared the lifelong challenges which prematurity can bring.

Fiona’s Story: one pregnancy, two babies

By Fiona MylchreestNovember 28, 2020

“Our twins are a double blessing. But Mungo was no free gift. My twin 2 was a priceless timebomb, a huge risk with the ultimate prize, if we could time it right. In terms of prematurity, twins are double jeopardy. They are extra small; extra likely to be born early; extra likely to be born very very early. “

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

Finn’s story

By Fiona MylchreestOctober 21, 2020

Finn was born suddenly at 28 weeks and intubated and incubated for the first weeks of his life. We took photographs every day because every day might be the last.

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Julian on beach

My stupid husband is walking to the North Pole (but I’m so proud of him)

By Fiona MylchreestMarch 29, 2018Arctic Challenge

It seemed like a joke at first but then Fiona’s husband decided he really was going to walk to the North Pole for Borne.

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

Fiona’s story

By Fiona MylchreestJanuary 25, 2018Story

I have five fabulous children. That’s the happiness. All five were born prematurely, which sounds crazy, I know. But the thing is, we never knew why.

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

Borne to Dance 2017

By Fiona MylchreestMarch 7, 2017Event
Banqueting House played host for the eveningLast week was Borne to Dance. The Borne team, including my husband, have been…

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

Pancake Day and the 40 Days of Prematurity

By Fiona MylchreestFebruary 28, 2017
It’s Pancake Day!  This is a church tradition to use up all the rich ingredients before Lent.  These luxuries –…

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

Please, be my valentine

By Fiona MylchreestFebruary 14, 2017Pregnancy, Research, Science, Story

My second baby was due on St.Valentine’s Day. I flirted with the idea of giving him or her Valentine as a middle name. It was silly really, but it seemed a special day to be born.

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

The Borne Dream

By Fiona MylchreestJanuary 16, 2017Pregnancy, Research, Science
In August 1963, Martin Luther King Jnr made his I have a dream speech, about true equality, about an end…

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

Christmas in NICU with a premature baby

By Fiona MylchreestDecember 23, 2016Life in NICU, Story

“When people talk about a baby’s first Christmas, they don’t mean in hospital.”

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

Development: how premature babies grow

By Fiona MylchreestDecember 17, 2016Story

Why do premature babies grow as they do? Fiona Mylchreest, mother of five and wife of Borne Chairman, reflects on her children’s experience.

Read more

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

Posts navigation

1 2 Next page
Please, enter #hashtag.

About us

  • About Borne
  • About Mark Johnson
  • Corporate governance
  • Scientific governance
  • Our Leadership
  • Annual Reports
  • Accreditations

Resources

  • For those affected
  • Media Centre
  • Contact Us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy policy

Join us

  • Donate
  • Subscribe
  • Fundraise for us
  • Become a Friend of Borne
Borne is a medical research charity working to identify the causes of premature birth in order to save lives, prevent disability and create lifelong health for mothers and babies. Registered charity no. 1167073