Smallest surviving baby in Milton Keynes celebrates her first birthday and becomes a TikTok star

A baby that has defied all odds to survive is today celebrating her first birthday.

Tiny Lily Bickerdike-Guile was delivered 16 weeks prematurely, along with her identical twin Daisy, to Wolverton grandmother Cheryl Guile last October.

Sadly Daisy, who was the slightly bigger twin, lost her battle for life when she was two weeks old. But little Lily astounded doctors by going from strength to strength.

Mum-of-five Chery Guile, 39, had discovered she was unexpectedly pregnant with twins on her granddaughter Summer's first birthday.

She and her partner Ray Bickerdale were delighted but their joy turned to fear when Cheryl’s waters broke prematurely and the twins had to be delivered by emergency C-Section.

Lily, known as a ‘micro preemie’ was in hospital for almost five months before she was allowed home, weighing a healthy 7lb.

When she was first born she was smaller than an adult’s hand, her eyes were fused shut and her skin was so fragile that her parents were not allowed to touch her. Her tiny hand was the same size as her mum’s fingernail.

It was more than two months before Cheryl and Ray saw her face for the first time, because she was so covered in tubes and equipment to help her breathe.

Today Lily is still petite and needs to be fed with a tube – but is otherwise fighting fit.

Her mum has documented the dramas of the past year in a Facebook blog called Daisy & Lily, one in heaven one on earth - miracle twins UK and it has amassed 27,000 followers from all over the world.

But it is on TikTok that the tot has found real stardom. Cheryl posts regular videos on her ‘Miss Lily Petal’ page and it now has more than 100,000 fans.

One video called ‘Watch baby grow outside the womb’ went viral and gathered an incredible 477,400 views.

Meanwhile, Cheryl and Ray have never stopped remembering Lily’s twin sister. They took part in the national ‘wave of light’ on October 15 and lit candles to commemorate her life and the lives of other babies taken too soon.

"We receive messages daily from other angel parents talking through their own experiences of loss, and many parents with premature babies thank us for giving them hope through their frightening NICU journeys,” said Cheryl.

Lily’s birthday today will be a day of celebration with all the family.

"We are also taking time out during the day to visit Daisy with balloons and sing happy birthday with some cake... We will always keep her memory very much alive,” said Cheryl.

She added: "We will never forget the hard work of the medical teams from JR Oxford and Milton Keynes university hospital, where we continue to receive support. Without them Lily would not be here today and for that we are truly thankful.

"Lily is our rising star and we wanted to share some of her happiness and love today with the Citizen and the people of MK.”