One fantastic thing that we did get to do in between hospital stays and surgeries was to go on a trip with the charity 'When You Wish Upon a Star' and on 19th December 2001, after lots of prayers and near-misses, we went to Lapland for the day!

It was a very exiciting time as none of us had ever even been on an plane before and we all had to apply for passports!

Unusually the charity paid for all 5 of us to go, normally it's just for one parent and the sick child, but they said due to our circumstances and how ill Christopher was they would pay for us all to go which was wonderful as I really don't think I could have gone and left Katherine and Matthew at home on such a special day out.

My Mum also desparately wanted to go so she made a donation to the charity to cover the cost of her place and she came with us!

We set off very early in the morning and as an added surprise - Jeremy Spake from the BBC TV series 'Airport' came with us and also the Pop Idol winners 'Hear'say'. Katherine was so very excited as we'd followed the Pop Idol series on the TV and she couldn't believe that she got to meet them in the flesh!

It was a very long but very magical day, we all got to meet the 'real' santa and it's something we'll never forget.