Everything in life happens for a reason

Meet Zoë Leonard-Morgan, have you seen a bigger smile? She looks as if she's about to start one of those baby giggles that you just can't help but join in with.

Zoë's Dad, Paul, took part in the 26 mile Hampden to Loch Lomond Kiltwalk to raise money for Scotland's Children's Charities and Yorkhill in particular. You see Yorkhill saved Zoë's life and Paul and his wife, Andie, just can't thank them enough.

I found Paul on Facebook and got in touch with him and as Paul told me his story I couldn't help but think of the question debated by religious scholars and physiologists which is "Does everything in life happen for a reason?"

Marilyn Monroe thought so and famously said, "I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so you appreciate them when they're right and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."

Someone else who believed everything happens for a reason was Greek philosopher Aristotle, who said, "there's always a reason for everything that happens. Your experiences are designed to shape you and define you"

When people have to cope with difficult situations in their lives, they often reassure themselves by saying that everything happens for a reason. For some people, thinking this way makes it easier to deal with losing a job, or relationship problems, or even death.

Take the situation my family found ourselves in last year. It had been a traumatic 18 months where my Mum's dementia finally robbed her of her very soul. She was still our Mum and the person we loved, but she wasn't the person we knew.

In her final 6 months it went downhill very quickly and all though she still knew us, the paranoia and psychosis had set in and the next stage of not knowing who we were, was "in the post".

It got so bad she was admitted to a Mental Health ward and if the person we knew, could see the person she had become, she wouldn't have wanted that. So one lunch time, our Mum, who had always been stubborn, decided to insist her Zimmer frame would be left several feet from where it should have been which resulted in her falling, breaking her hip and dying of a chest infection several days later with her family around her. It was one of the most enlightening moments I've ever experienced, as I believe that by 'leaving that Zimmer where she did, and taking a tumble' then she left on "her terms" and I said as much in the Eulogy I read at her funeral. It's what I believe and yes, it was also a great comfort to me and my family.

The saying that everything happens for a reason could be interpreted by some as saying "It's God's will." However, I have a problem with that, as I'm not convinced there's enough good evidence that God exists. So am I deluding myself that such events can be viewed as "happening for a reason" or are simply nothing more than the result of accidents, or possibly even of chance?

I don't claim to know answers to the above, or understand the philosophical arguments around it but when I consider what I've seen happen, or when I hear Paul's events then who knows?

Paul came to Glasgow in 1992 to study at the Scottish Conservatoire, allowing him to refine his skills and enable him to have his dream job, writing music for films. Paul's job takes him all over the world and has bases in Glasgow, London and Los Angeles.

It was while the his wife Andie and other daughter Naomi were based in LA that Andie became pregnant with Zoë and for reasons they're still not quite sure of, they decided to have Zoë back in the UK and left the warm climes of LA to spend Xmas with their family in Glasgow.

Zoë was born on the 2nd of January and made a fairly spectacular entrance, in the bathroom at home and after a night at the Princess Royal, Mother and baby were allowed home as everything was fine.

The new family were getting on fine and dandy at home and as it was their second child and it was also now Saturday, they told the Midwife there was no need for her to "pop in " as Zoë was doing just grand.

Now any of us who have had children will know, you can't fob off a Midwife that easily, even if you are thinking of her, so she duly arrived for her routine visit.

It was that routine that when she told Paul and Andie "not to panic, but it might be a good idea to take Zoë to Yorkhill, just to get her checked out" they were somewhat taken aback.

The midwife had noticed Zoe's stomach was a little swollen and it turned out the problem was Zoë hadn't moved her bowels to get rid of the Muconium that most babies do naturally.

Meconium is the earliest stools of a baby and is composed of materials ingested during the time the baby spends in the uterus and consists of intestinal epithelial cells, lanugo, mucus, amniotic fluid, bile and water. Not the type of stuff you want lingering inside a baby, which meant Zoë was now vomiting up green sick.

Twenty minutes after arriving at Yorkhill, Zoë was taken from Andie's arms and alarmingly had 7 doctors attending to her, sticking tubes in her throat. Worse was then to follow as Zoë stopped breathing 15 minutes later.

It was at this point ehe skill of the doctors and medical staff managed to get Zoë breathing again and she was taken the NICU unit, where she stayed for 6 weeks, while they tried to work out what was wrong with her. They were pretty sure Zoe was suffering from a condition called "Hirschsprung", but every biopsy they did came back inconclusive.

Hirschsprungs is a condition which affects 1 in 5,000 children, where the nerve cells in part of the bowel don't work properly. This meant Zoë was eating fine, but just couldn't get it out of her body so had to endure two enemas a day, to clear out her system, and each time her stomach would go down by about 10 cm.

Yorkhill are in the fortunate position that they have Mr Davies, who just happens to be one of about 10 specialists in the world that deals with this illness.

So remember the question "do things happen for a reason?" Well consider the following.

What if Paul and Andie hadn't decided to come back to the UK for Xmas?

What if the midwife hadn't called when she did?

What if they arrived at Yorkhill (2 miles from us) 15 minutes later?

And what if Mr Davies hadn't been the one to see Zoë when she got to Yorkhill?

I don't know about you, but if any one of those things hadn't happened, for a reason or otherwise then Paul and Andie believe they wouldn't have Zoë with them today.

When Zoë got out, one of Paul's best friends, Aidan, announced he was going to do the Kiltwalk to raise money for Yorkhil. When Paul thought of the truly amazing, incredible professionals, from the doctors that ended up doing the 6-hour surgery to all the nurses that looked after not only Zoë, but her family when they were there for the best part of 2 months, he was only too pleased to sign up.

Having signed up he quickly roped in some cousins and friends, got a team of 5 together and created Team Zoë. Although Paul didn't have time to train, he did have time to contact all the bands and film people he works with who chipped in with a few prizes. When people sponsored Team Zoë they went in a draw to win signed CD's, tickets etc and as Team Zoë tot up the amount raised, they're astonished and delighted to have raised almost £10,000

Paul's friends in the USA thought he was totally crazy for taking part. However by taking part, raising all this money, meeting all the other walkers, with their own stories, Paul found his Kiltwalk experience truly inspiring.

I'll leave you all to decide if you believe things "happen for a reason"