A YOUNG mum has raised hundreds of pounds through a charity walk for the hospital that saved her son after he was born prematurely.

Lucia D'Avanzo, of Bourton-on-the-Water, raised more than £600 for Gloucestershire Royal Hospital's neo-natal unit by organising a Little Lights Walk around her home village last Saturday.

The Little Lights Walks are usually organised by Bliss, a premature baby charity, and see participants wearing high-vis sashes carrying lanterns, candles, torches or glow-sticks during a twilight walk.

However, Lucia, 25, organised this walk herself to ensure that all the proceeds went to the hospital, as her way of saying thank-you for saving son Leo, now two.

She said: “I think the work that Bliss do is absolutely brilliant, but I wanted to ensure that the proceeds went towards helping the staff that saved Leo.

“The walk itself went really well. I wasn’t expecting as many people to turn up. We ended the walk at the bridge with me stepping into the water to float the tea-light candles downstream.”

Lucia will be raising more funds at a stall at Bourton's late night shopping on December , and outside Tesco in Stow-on-the-Wold on December 21.