It's the small things that matter most in life according to octogenarian great grandma Betty Cahill.

When Mrs Cahill, of Wibsey, celebrated her 80th birthday she asked friends and family to forget presents and give to charity instead.

And yesterday she went to Bradford Royal Infirmary to hand over £600 to the Born in Bradford project.

The project, which will cost about £2 million and was started in March, is monitoring babies' health and development. It is one of the biggest studies of its kind in the world.

As well as meeting some of the nursing staff and researchers, Mrs Cahill was introduced to one of the project's newest recruits, eight-hour-old Leighton Chippendale and his mum Sarah, of Allerton.

Mrs Cahill said: "It's fantastic to come and see the babies. I didn't want any presents, you don't need anything when you get to my age. I thought the money would be better spent here for the babies and their mums.

"I had my two girls at St Luke's. It was very different in those days - you had to stay in ten days, but now you're up, out and back home.

"I've had a good life up to 80 and I hope all the babies will get the same luck as I have had."

It was Mrs Cahill's daughter Pat Drake who suggested the Born in Bradford project - until retiring 18 months ago she was the Hospital Trust's Assistant Chief Nurse.

Mrs Drake said: "After I left I still kept up voluntary work, especially with the Born In Bradford project. It's an extremely important study for the city and for its future generations.

"Mum's been more excited about coming to see the babies than she was about her party."

Born In Bradford's lead midwife Dagmar Waiblinger said: "We've got about 2,500 mums involved so far and we've had about 1,600 babies born since we started recruiting in March.

"We are already collecting information through questionnaires, and by measuring new babies, midwives are also gathering information.

"It will be in about three years before we can make statements from the information collected, and it will keep going and growing from there."

The project plans to keep track of 10,000 babies born in Bradford over the next two years. The data will help researchers find out why youngsters born here are so prone to illness and other problems.

Anyone who wants to donate should visit www.borninbradford.nhs.uk or send a cheque, payable to Born in Bradford Charitable Account, to Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Mark Hawker, The Old Laundry, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Duckworth Lane, BD9 6RJ.

e-mail: kathie.griffiths@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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