Ryder's story

From Ryder's dad, Quinn Darragh.

Ryder had a pretty rough start. He was born at 27 weeks and weighing just 1kg. The first days, weeks and months were tough. Resuscitated in the delivery room, I watched on feeling completely hopeless. Isn’t it my job to protect him? I could not help him at all, I was simply a passenger on a runaway train that looked destined for disaster.

Ryder said without speaking, “I’ve got this dad”. He fought so hard and successfully navigated all the high-risk complications a 27 week premi baby can unfortunately have. I felt so grateful to the amazing nurses and doctors in the Royal Hospital for Women NICU that I promised I would come back one day and repay them. One day as I told Ryders story it dawned on me that the ventilator that helped Ryder breathe in those first crucial days and weeks was donated by Running for Premature Babies. That’s it then, a ventilator is what I’m giving back.

In 2020 Quinn and his mate Luke raised $144k for our charity through their Chasing the Channel Challenge.