14 November 14, 2021The Sunday TimesFootball
can help families who are going
through a similar journey.
Theirs started when Sarah, wife of
Ben, the Burnley captain, was expect-
ing Olive, their second child. At 18
weeks, the pregnancy developed
complications and at 21 weeks Sarah
was taken into St Mary’s Hospital,
Manchester. There had been a
placental abruption, endangering
both mother and baby. It was decided
to try to get to 24 weeks and deliver
Olive, who, at that point, would have
about a 60 per cent chance of survival— compared with 10 per cent if born at
22 weeks.
This was a risk to Sarah and the
hardest moments came during the
final six days of the pregnancy, when
she was in a bed in the delivery suite,
counting the hours as Olive inched
towards the magic 24-week mark.
“That was the worst,” says Ben,
“because we were unsure about Sarah
and the baby as well. Sarah was speak-
ing to the doctors and being reassured
about herself but even to hear those
sorts of conversations was difficult.O
live Mee has just started
walking and for her parents,
Ben and Sarah, it’s another
beautiful milestone. They
watch her totter across their
front room and, when she
stumbles, just pick herself
up, smiling that smile.
“She’s a strong little girl,” says Ben, “a
feisty one. Cheeky.” At 18 months old,
she’s already the boss of her three-
year-old brother, Jaxon.
As Ben and Sarah talk, sitting close
on a sofa in their south Manchester
home, a younger Olive grins from a
photograph on the wall. You almost
don’t notice the tiny oxygen tubes in
her nostrils and that is what we are
here to talk about: both what is “nor-
mal” and special about the Mees’ gor-
geous wee daughter, and how they‘We want to
let other
families know
that there is
always hope’
THE FOOTBALL
INTERVIEW
WITH JONATHAN NORTHCROFT
Burnley captain Ben Mee’s daughter was
born with a 60 per cent chance of survival –
now he wants to reach out to parents in need
“Coming away from hospital was
very hard, especially if Sarah was
upset, because she was quite poorly
and I had to leave her there. Those
drives back home were difficult.
Times where I was a bit more
vulnerable than I would normally be.”
This was near the start of the first
lockdown and Ben was the only visi-
tor Sarah was allowed. She was sepa-
rated from Jaxon, himself just a
toddler at the time, and that added to
her challenges. “I’d FaceTime Jaxon
but just get too upset when I got off thephone, because I missed him so
much,” she says.
The night before delivery, Sarah
went on a magnesium drip, to help
Olive’s brain. It felt like being on fire.
“My midwife was amazing, encourag-
ing me. She kept saying, ‘You’re doing
this for Olive.’”
Olive’s birthweight was 1lb 2oz and
it was three weeks before Sarah could
hold her. She seemed so little, so light
but would clasp her hand round your
finger and cling on. Sarah went home
the week after the birth and, from