'Romantic' sunflowers help to save newborn babies

Farmers Alex and Simon, pictured with children Penny and Dexter, started the sunflower field in 2021

In 2021, a farming couple planted a 6m-strip of sunflowers on their land to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary.

It was not open to the public initially but before too long, families emerging from the Covid lockdowns, keen to get back in touch with the outdoors, were asking for a closer look.

Four years later, Crewe Green Sunflowers, at Park Farm near Crewe, Cheshire, grows almost a million flowers covering 10 acres, with hundreds of visitors picking or walking among them every summer for the few weeks it's open.

Owner Alex said the idea was born from a "romantic" idea suggested by her husband Simon and it also marked 100 years of the family's farm.

"It's really intense but the public reception is amazing," she said. "Everybody comes with smiles on their faces and leaves with smiles on their faces.

"The only smiles that we don't have are from the children who are upset because they don't want to leave."

Alex and Simon grew the sunflower field to mark their 10th wedding anniversary

A portion of the proceeds collected through donations and visitor charges go to the neonatal unit at nearby Leighton Hospital, with £25,000 raised so far.

It is a cause close to Alex and Simon's hearts, following the traumatic births of their children Dexter and Penny.

Dexter, 10, was diagnosed with suspected meningitis after he was born and was in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for eight days.

He went through numerous lumbar punctures, a test involving a needle being inserted into the lower spine, and several courses of antibiotics, Alex said.

"As a first-time parent, being in the NICU was absolutely harrowing but the nurses were incredible," she added.

Penny spent several months in critical care after she was born

About three years later, Penny, now seven, was born 11 weeks early after Alex became ill with HELLP syndrome – hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets.

Penny weighed just above 2Ibs and she spent several months in the NICU until she was well enough to go home with her parents.

"It [NICU] just became like a second home," Alex said. "A lot of the nurses we met with Dexter were still there, with Penny, and it was evident that funding with the NHS, as with anything, was really stretched."

After Penny recovered, Simon signed up for the London Marathon the next year, marking the first bit of fundraising the family did for the unit.

The sunflower field is open for a few weeks every August

Alex said they never kept track of how much they raised and they were "amazed" when the hospital contacted them after reaching the £25,000 milestone.

The money has been used to buy hospital equipment, including a £13,000 video laryngoscope, which helps with intubation procedures.

Alex said she would be "forever grateful" to the hospital's staff for helping her children, adding: "They're like extended family now.

"They work massive, long shifts and deal with emotional people, it is very difficult. They all go above and beyond."