IT WAS A difficult parting that I have struggled to articulate for many years. I did not want to be kind and donate my red double stroller to the charity shop at the maternity hospital. I accept that this admission probably makes me some kind of monster, but if I give you the reasons then you might understand how important it was to me at a time in my life that was unlike any other before it.

I have happily given away many things to friends, acquaintances and charity – furniture, toys, clothes, shoes, books. But, to me, the red double stroller could not be categorised into a class of inanimate objects. It was much more than that – and I did not want to give it away.