Former Corrie star Kym Marsh has posted an emotional birthday message about her 'miracle' daughter Polly as she turns 11.
The proud mum says it was 'touch and go' for her youngest daughter Polly, who was born seven weeks premature weighing just 4lbs 1oz, but her baby girl 'defied all odds.' The Morning Live presenter shared a montage of photos of her 'little miracle' who left doctors baffled, showing her as a tiny baby.
"11 years since this little miracle came into our lives!!!" Kym wrote on her Instagram. "I say little….not so little these days!!
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"When you look at her now it’s hard to imagine how teeny tiny and fragile she was when she was first born. 7 weeks Prem, 4lbs and 1oz but with a fight like no other!! She defied all odds!
"She baffled all the drs, because it had been so touch and go all the way, she just kept fighting! So many times I was taken into hospital with them all thinking her arrival was imminent, but it was like it was on her terms when she made an appearance, she decided, she was the boss!
"Funny enough she’s still like that now! Her spirit and determination is second to none! She’s like a whirlwind, you KNOW when Polly has entered the room!
"Her smile, her laugh, her wicked sense of humour, it’s just captivating." Kym, 45, added: "To sum her up…. She’s a special little lady!"
And she signed off by writing to the birthday girl: "So today Miss Polly we celebrate YOU! You beautiful, funny, talented, crazy, feisty, incredible little girl!
"I am so proud to be your mum! Happy happy birthday sweetheart. I love you always and forever xxx #rainbowbaby."
Coronation Street favourite Kym, who played Michelle Connor in the soap from 2006 to 2019, previously told how she feared she might also lose Polly after the tragic death of her baby boy Archie in 2009 at 21 weeks of pregnancy. Speaking at the Red Sea Pedestrians Ball to raise funds for St Mary’s Hospital’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit in 2017 she thanked the 'miracle workers' who saved her daughter’s life.
She explained that her older daughter Emilie, 24, was the only child who she carried to full term pregnancy. Her eldest child David, 26, was born six weeks early.
She told how, a year after Archie died, she felt 'brave enough' to try for another baby and was placed under the care of St Mary’s, Manchester’s specialist centre for obstetrics and neonatal care when she became pregnant with Polly. Kym says she was 'absolutely terrified' to discover she had a condition that meant there was a strong possibility that she could go into premature labour again.
She said: “I couldn’t believe that this could be happening twice. The thought of losing another child was just simply unthinkable.
“The specialists at St Mary’s performed a procedure to stop me going into early labour and I was put on immediate bed rest and I spent many months in and out of hospital or in bed at home drinking tea and watching TV.”
Kym went on to give birth to Polly in March 2011 following 33 weeks of pregnancy. However shortly after Polly was delivered she was experiencing breathing difficulties and had to be placed on a ventilator.
Kym explained: “My world started to crumble. We were so beyond worried. We hadn’t expected her to need this intervention because she seemed to be doing so well on her own.
“Watching your own child in a tiny glass incubator, tubes everywhere, struggling to take breaths is heartbreaking and terrifying. I stayed awake the whole night worrying, all sorts of things going through my head ‘what if, what if?’, hoping, praying that she would be okay.
“Thankfully Polly only needed ventilating for a short time and we realised quite quickly that she was one of the lucky ones.
“The staff at St Mary’s are true angels and miracle workers and they become like your second family. They’re always there to talk or to lend a shoulder to cry on when things get too much.
“They are undoubtedly the reason that our Polly is here today.”
