Another week, another child down with illness.

Inevitably, Bay, our youngest, has now been struck down with the poxy badness.

It’s so amazing to see how the girls’ have reacted differently to the same situation; her big sister Dali becomes a flouncing 1930’s starlet, hand on forehead refusing medication and wanting to tell anyone who will listen about her tragedy.

Bay gave her usual tornado style a good go but has eventually admitted defeat and is now residing silently in the crook of my arm.

I have never seen her so still so I’m making the most of it, drinking in her smallness and her need for Mummy, because this won’t last forever.

I feel most like a mum when either of the girls are ill.

At the sound of heaving in the night, I can feel a supercharge surge through my body and sleep is easily forgotten. I feel the same when Greg needs full time care during chemotherapy.

Time blurs and I gain a laser focus on what needs to be done. I know my role in this story and I’m happy to play the part.

When people you truly love need you, you somehow find an energy and strength you had no idea was in you.

That isn’t to say that I’m not unspeakably exhausted; three weeks of full on playing nurse has left me dreaming of a holiday, despite how lovely it is to be needed.

And no Dali, ‘needing me’ doesn’t include shouting at me from another room that you need me to pass you your cup – that is right next to you.

- Stacey Heale has put her career as a fashion lecturer on hold to focus on her two lively little girls and fiancé, Delays frontman Greg Gilbert, who was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in November 2016. She launched the viral campaign Give4Greg to raise funds for lifesaving treatment through GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/give4greg