A TINY baby who arrived a week early helped to spark a fund-raising weekend.

Alison Coates suffered complications in her final week of pregnancy -- but now baby Bailey is helping to raise £1,000 for Burnley General Hospital's Edith Watson baby unit.

Alison and husband, Simon, have persuaded Bowker BMW in Accrington to give some of the proceeds from its family weekend to the baby unit.

The 25-year-old, of Princess Street, Colne, had been happy with the way her pregnancy had been going.

But she said: "One night my leg became really swollen. I phoned Burnley Hospital and they told me to come in.

"It turned out that I had a blood clot in my vein and the doctor was worried that I had a deep vein thrombosis.

"A monitor was put on the baby's heart and they discovered that his heart rate had dropped alarmingly," she said.

Meanwhile, her husband, Simon, had spent a sleepless night at home. "I got a phone call to say that they were going to perform an emergency Caesarean section," said the 25-year-old, who is a senior parts adviser at Bowker BMW in Accrington.

Alison, a sewing machinist, added: "It was the last thing I wanted, but we had no choice."

She was given a general anaesthetic and Bailey was born at 2.28am on May 31, weighing 6lb 8oz.

"The staff at the Edith Watson baby unit were fantastic. Alison was quite poorly when she came round, but the midwife found the time to take Bailey down to her in recovery.

"It was a traumatic time, but they were so kind to us," said Simon.

Alison has since been on a course of anti-coagulants and is feeling much better.

To show their appreciation they asked Simon's boss, Tony Lowe, at Bowker BMW in Hyndburn Road to use the event on Saturday and Sunday to raise money for the baby unit.

Tony added: "We'd all been on pins when we found out that there were complications and we were only to pleased to help out. We've decided to donate the proceeds from the catering at the event. With any luck, we might raise as much as £1,000."

The event took place throughout this weekend and the main charity to benefit was the is the Meningitis Trust.