Meet our panel of judges

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Sophie Smith – (2009 Premmie Award Winner)

Sophie Smith is a mum to four sons – Henry, Jasper, Evan and 19 month old Owen. Her triplets were born at 21 and 24 weeks in 2006 and fought bravely to live. Tiny Henry lived for just one hour, Evan for ten days and Jasper for 58 days. Sophie honours their memory by running half-marathons to fund-raise for a special Trust Fund set up in her sons’ names at the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney. This Trust raises funds for life saving equipment for babies in Intensive Care. Her teams of runners have so far raised over $300,000, which has bought ten new humidicribs and two neo-natal monitors.

Sophie hopes that her half-marathon teams raise awareness of both prematurity and infant loss, as well as saving the lives of other precious premature babies like hers.

Sophie was delighted to be the winner of the 2009 L’il Aussie Prems Local Premmie Hero Award, and is honoured to be asked to join the 2010 panel of judges.

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Trish Watt – (General Manager of Pumpkin Patch Australia)

Trish Watt is a ‘grass roots’ retailer that started her career in 1970 working for House of Merivale as a retail sales assistant. In her 30+ years in the industry she has been a Store Manager, a successful business owner/operator and a State Manager before making the move to Pumpkin Patch in 1993.

Trish was employed as the NSW State Manager and was founding member of the Australian Retail Management team. In 2004 Trish was promoted to General Manager – Australian Retail and has encouraged a culture of providing excellence in customer service while giving her team the ability to share ideas in an environment that fosters success.

Trish continues as the General Manager for Pumpkin Patch Australia Retail with a team that now consists of 114 stores nationwide and over 1500 staff.

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Pinky McKay – (Parenting Expert & Author)

International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and a Certified Infant Massage Instructor, Pinky McKay is a Melbourne based best selling baby care author of ‘Sleeping Like a Baby’, ‘100 Ways to Calm the Crying’ and ‘Toddler Tactics’ (Penguin). She also works ‘hands on’ with parents, teaching infant massage and solving breastfeeding problems, with many clients being referred to her by health professionals such as GPs and MCH nurses.

The mother of four adult ‘children’ and a now teenage ‘bonus baby’ (the baby you have when your other kids can run their own baths, tie their own shoelaces and even drive their own cars!), Pinky has experienced it all from both sides of the episiotomy. And this is why she knows (first hand!) how much parents need to laugh – or some days they’d cry. Her warmth and humour make her a popular guest speaker.

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Peter Dubiez – (Author & Father)

On Friday May 28th, 2004 Peter and his wife Kylie went along for a special 3d ultrasound of their “new life”. Kylie was 29 weeks. At the ultrasound they discovered a major fault with the baby’s heart. Peter and Kylie were provided 4 options, terminate now, the baby probably will not live to full term, if the baby survives it may require life support and on-going surgery or fourthly just hope. Kylie surrendered to the power of love and chose hope. On the 28th July 2004 at 2.07pm, their miracle was born.

“The intensive care nurse quickly whisked him off to the area provided to assist Zane with his first breath. I heard my son cry: “Hear me roar!” A beautiful Leo star sign was welcomed; we had a son with the heart strength of a lion…..For a couple of minutes they were with Zane, clearing his airways. Then as a great gift they brought Zane over to us…my wife held him in her arms, close to her heart and Zane rested so peacefully. I watched in wonder and humility as two beautiful hearts connected”…an extract from “A Son’s Gift” book by Peter Dubiez

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Rebecca Waterhouse – (Premmie Mum & Volunteer)

The mother of a prematurely born daughter Rebecca Waterhouse was taken by shock three years ago when she entered the world of premmies. The trials of birthing a child early was not something she’d encountered within her own life and, when shown through televisions rose coloured glasses she only saw premmies as babies born a little early and a little small so it was a total surprise when her daughter Erin entered the world weighing a mere 428 grams.

Rebecca hopes that through her work with the National Premmie Foundation, L’il Aussie Prems and via her own site, Brisbane Premmies, she’ll be able to help raise the public awareness of what it means to have a prematurely born child.

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Julia Toivonen – (L’il Aussie Prems Founder)

Julia is a mum to two premature babies. Her first son, Ronan was born at 27 weeks gestation. Her second son, Tristan was born at 36 weeks in October 2008. As the creator of L’il Aussie Prems she thrives on all the challenges life has brought her and is a founding committee member of the National Premmie Foundation.

Julia won the “Knox Local Hero” award through her local council in 2008, has gone on to fundraise for her local hospital and worked endlessly on L’il Aussie Prems over the past 3 years to bring as much support to families as possible online. She is creating many projects not only for families with babies in hospital but also working with the public to give a helping hand back to the hospitals. Julia is an avid supporter of the premature charities around Australia.

Her true passion and heart lies with L’il Aussie Prems. It is with the support and love of it’s members that she has been able to spear head this award in honor of those who support Australia’s premature children and their families.