A FIRST-TIME mum has thanked hospital staff for helping her through the 'rollercoaster ride' of her son's first few months by signing up for the OX5 Run.

Alistair Douglas was born with a cleft lip and palette, holes in his heart, and a gap between his feeding tube and breathing tube.

He spent the first four months of his life at Oxford Children's Hospital but now, aged four, he is thriving at school and has even started learning to swim.

His mum Jen, following on from dad Rob who raised more than £3,500 by taking part last year, has started training for this year's five mile run at Blenheim Palace.

The 37-year-old said: "All the staff at the hospital were really supportive and friendly - it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride but we had so much support, particularly from the respiratory team.

"We spent a lot of time in intensive care and Alistair became a bit of a poster boy and everyone was so great to him.

"He is doing very well now, his speech has been delayed but he loves going to school and since he last operation in the summer he has started swimming which he loves."

The four-year-old, who goes to Bishop Loveday Primary School, was twice put on a ventilator in his first few months and doctors and nurses worked to get him healthy enough to go home.

After a stressful first six weeks of journeys from Bodicote to the hospital in Headington the couple were saved by a bed at Ronald McDonald House on the top floor of the hospital.

Next month's OX5 will raise money for a new 62-bedroom Ronald McDonald House facility and the engineer said it was why she was taking part.

She said: "Being able to stay at Ronald McDonald House made a humongous difference - the first six weeks we were going back and forth from Bodicote, it was quite draining.

"It's much easier being two floors away and being told your child is going on a ventilator than being an hour away.

"You're not physically doing anything but the emotional energy that goes into such a rollercoaster, especially with our first child, meant it was so important we had somewhere close by we could stay."

She added: "I started running in January with one of these couch to 5k apps and through a combination of walking and running I'll make it around.

"I just want to raise anything I can for the hospital."

The OX5 Run is being sponsored by recruitment firm Allen Associates for the ninth year.

Last year's event saw a record-breaking £115,000 raised, which has already been spent on a sensory room to educate and entertain children in its high dependency unit, equipment to stabilise premature babies and a specialist nurse for children with severe asthma.

People wanting to take part can do so by signing up online by going to hospitalcharity.co.uk/ox5run.