'She takes anything you throw at her': early arrival Paige thrives despite the odds

Paige has endured a series of health setbacks since her birth at just 24 weeks. But thanks to expert medical care, she has made great strides

Karen O'Keeffe with her one-year-old daughter Paige and her four-year-old son Alex at their home in Ballyvolane, Cork.

When Karen O’Keeffe asked her partner, Stephen, to drive her to Cork University Maternity Hospital in the small hours of a November morning, she was expecting to be treated for a urinary tract infection.

Only hours earlier, the Ballyvolane-based mum had come home early from a night shift at the Cork-based pharmaceutical company where she worked. She’d felt tired, hadn’t been herself and thought an early night would sort her out.