LITTLE Erin Gray was born weighing just 1lb 10oz - but eight months on the battling baby is a picture of health.

Her parents Karen and Gordon were told to expect the worst when their tiny daughter came into the world four months early.

Instead Erin went from strength to strength.

And just four months after her arrival on July 16 she was wrapped up nice and warm and taken home.

Today doting mum Karen described how her normal pregnancy took a dramatic turn when she went into labour 15 weeks early.

Karen, a nurse at the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow, said: "We were totally unprepared for what happened."

Karen and her husband Gordon, a consultant engineer, were plunged into a world of incubators, tubes and lines as the nursing staff at Wishaw General's Neonatal Unit fought to save their precious baby's life.

For the first 10 days the anxious parents could only watch and wait. But Erin was a fighter and as her condition slowly improved, Karen was allowed to hold her for the first time.

Karen said: "She was so small, but even then she was determined to survive.

"My brother-in-law described her as a can of Coke because that was how small she was."

As Erin got stronger, Karen made the daily trip from her home on Hyndford Road in Lanark to the hospital.

Now Karen and Gordon have a lively, inquisitive 16lb daughter.

Karen said: "When we finally took Erin home it was very emotional because the nurses had become friends. We still go back to the unit to see them."

Now superfit dad Gordon, 27, is preparing for a gruelling eight-day, 950-mile charity cycle from John O'Groats to Land's End in a bid to raise money for the neonatal unit.

He said: "I've not been away from Erin yet so the challenge for me is not just physical, but after seeing the amazing things that go on in the neonatal unit I wanted to help them.

"Without the staff and state-of-the-art equipment we might not have our little girl with us today."

Gordon has been training intensively alongside old friend and godfather to Erin, firefighter Mark Andrews, 27.

Karen added: "It's a small way of saying thanks for everything they did."

If you wish to sponsor Mark and Gordon on their trip visit www.jogle2007.co.uk