A FOUR-year-old boy has been back to the hospital intensive care unit where he spent the first two months of his life.

And Samuel Daniels took along a big present to say thanks for saving his life after he was born 10 weeks prematurely back in 2013.

Samuel handed over a £2,421 cheque to the Somerset Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (SNICU) at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital - money he raised through a 20-minute cross country endurance bike race.

Somerset County Gazette:

He completed the event at Escot Park, Ottery St Mary, in Devon, in October, and recently called into Musgrove after collecting all the sponsorship.

The trial involved cycling across fields on grass and mud, all in the face of the British climate.

His father, Mick, a sales director based in Burrowbridge, said: "He was born 10 weeks and two days prematurely and weighed in at only 2lb 9oz.

"We didn't get to see him or hold him and I didn't get to cut the cord.

"Within minutes of giving birth, he was resuscitated, fully ventilated and taken away to the SNICU at Musgrove, where he remained for the next 59 days.

"Thankfully for all of us, four years on and Samuel hasn't been affected by his early arrival."

Somerset County Gazette:

Fundraising runs in the family - Mr Daniels himself raised £7,500 for SNICU when he ran three marathons in as many days over the Jurassic coast in March 2014 to buy a life support machine for SNICU, which has Samuel's name and date of birth engraved on it.

Samuel had previously only used a balance bicycle before he was given his pedal bike as a fourth birthday present and spent hours training for the race.

He wanted to take part in the race to "give something back to SNICU and all the wonderful professionals who helped him through the very challenging start to life he had", said Mr Daniels.