It was a family affair for England’s Hannah Burke on the Ladies European Tour (LET) in Mauritius as she was joined by wife Donna and their miracle daughter baby Maggie for their first holiday as a three.
Last year, during her pregnancy Donna suffered from severe pre-eclampsia and had to be in hospital for several weeks until Maggie was delivered at just 26 weeks – 14 weeks earlier than planned – and weighing just 1lb 4oz or 595 grams.
“Maggie, as you can see, is pretty small for almost 10 months old,” said Hannah. “She’s a 26-weeker, so she was born 14 weeks early. Donna has suffered severe pre-eclampsia. I was in Belgium, got the call from my mom at 2:30 in the morning like, ‘You need to get home. It’s really bad’.
“I managed to get home the next day. We got ambulance ride to Addenbrookes and spent the next three weeks in Addenbrookes cooking her a little bit longer, managed to get to 26 weeks. They decided the time was to deliver.
“Maggie was born 3rd of July, it should have been 8th of October, weighing a massive 1 pound 4 oz, so 595 grams in the Rosie Hospital in Addenbrookes. From then on, it became quite a rollercoaster journey for all of us. It was touch and go every day.”
The couple spent four months in Addenbrookes hospital with Maggie in the NICU as she had two operations, three bouts of sepsis, eight blood transfusions and two platelet transfusions.
Having been surrounded by family and a support system at Addenbrookes, they managed to take Maggie home.
Hannah continued: “Addenbrookes were absolutely amazing. All the staff, we can’t thank them enough really, can we? They have become family to us. Donna was in for three weeks and then Maggie was in for four months to the day. 3rd of July to the 3rd of November.
“They supported us not just obviously looking after Maggie, but us too emotionally was absolutely incredible. I feel like we became professionals in hospital jargon. We started to learn what numbers to watch, not pay too much attention to the monitors and they guided us through day by day.
“Maggie at 23 days old, she got a stomach infection that was quite bad. Sometimes they can just take antibiotics, and it clears up, but hers was really aggressive, so she had to go into life-saving surgery. They removed part of her bowel and our nurses that night were just absolutely incredible with us.
“The surgeon saved her life basically. We’re so thankful. It was ups and downs. There were tears, smiles, it had a mix of everything, but we made it.”
When the LET schedule for 2026 was announced, straight away Donna knew where she wanted to take the family.
The inaugural MCB Ladies Classic – Mauritius was pencilled in for May 1-3 and Donna had marked that as the first family holiday and trip away to watch Hannah play.
“I saw Hannah’s schedule come out. We were sitting by Maggie’s incubator, and I was like we’re going there,” said Donna. “Hannah’s a very methodical, logical, person takes it day-by-day and I was like I need something to look forward to. We’re taking Maggie that will be our first holiday. We got to Mauritius!”
Hannah added: “She’s been enjoying the ice creams in the player’s lounge and lots of cuddles. She’s had loads of gifts from everybody. It’s been absolutely incredible. Cass [Alexander] bought all of her inflatables, and she started her on biltong for her teething.
“She’s having swimming lessons with Alice’s [Hewson] mum most days in the pool, which is great. She’s best friends with Marianne Skarpnord and Johan. They absolutely love her. She’s got endless best friends, which is incredible. They were a huge support while we were actually in hospital. We had so many messages while we were in there, which was absolutely amazing. It takes so many people to get you through a situation like that. A village or an army.
“My sponsors as well, Trutite, Russell and Sharon, they continued to sponsor me the whole way through which is obviously a difficult time emotionally, physically, but also financially. I didn’t work for nine months being self-employed, which was really tough. A massive shout out to them as well. We have just got so many people to thank to get us to this scenario on the beach in Mauritius.”
Burke, who is a winner on the LET, has had a complete change in perspective since Maggie came into her life especially given the difficult journey the family have been on.
“Having a baby in general is life-changing but going through what we went through is even more so,” continued Hannah. “It puts into perspective everything, nothing else is important. It’s totally changed my outlook on everything.
“Golf is great. I’m still extremely competitive, so I really enjoyed the challenge. But to be here today with Maggie is, we didn’t think we’d be here. We were told many times to prepare for the worst. To have that as any sort of first-time parents was really hard. We are very thankful and grateful for where we are today.”
Hannah and Donna wanted to raise awareness premature babies that survive and thrive with Maggie proving anything is possible.
They also wanted to be a story of hope for anyone who is going through something similar and have this advice.
Hannah said: “Just stick to it that there are some real dark days, but trust the doctors, trust the nurses, listen to what they say. They are usually right. We knew something wasn’t quite right with Maggie when she was had her stomach stuff and that night Sheila, the nurse, looked after her and said, “She’s not right. Something’s really wrong.” Made the call. They can do incredible things. Really just don’t give up hope.”
Donna added: “For me I went down a rabbit hole most days in the NICU. I looked on social media for other stories of hope and there are plenty. Yes, it’s very tragic being in there. There’s a lot of grief and you’re surrounded by a lot of trauma, but there is a lot of hope as well. The staff give you hope, we gave each other hope, and obviously Maggie gave us hope. We eventually got through it. It’s amazing what medicine and science can do today with premature babies that a 26-weeker can survive and can thrive outside of the womb. We can’t thank them enough.”
