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Sarah and Gordon Brown expecting October baby

Andy McSmith
Sunday 06 April 2003 00:00 BST
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Sarah Brown, wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is expecting a second child, Gordon Brown's office announced yesterday.

The news arrives 15 months after the Browns lost their first daughter, Jennifer Jane, after her premature birth.

Mr Brown's spokesman said: "Sarah and Gordon Brown are expecting a baby in October. This is clearly good and welcome news and Sarah is fit and well."

Born by Caesarean section seven weeks prematurely, Jennifer Jane weighed just 2lb 4oz. She died in an Edinburgh hospital on 7 January. Tony and Cherie Blair were among the hundreds of mourners at Jennifer's funeral in Kirkcaldy, which produced a wave of sympathy for the Browns.

Mrs Brown stayed out of the public eye for three months, first appearing in public on Budget Day and then writing briefly in The Mirror in May last year as patron of the National Council of One Parent Families, (NCOPF).

She said: "Through our experiences as parents in caring for our daughter Jennifer in her short life, Gordon and I needed each other's love and support. I can't imagine how hard it would have been without Gordon there with me."

Devoting much of the past year to children's charity work, Sarah helped NCOPF to compile a fundraising book of children's short stories.

In February, she launched a new research charity into premature births. The Browns hoped to raise £600,000 for the Jennifer Brown Research Fund, to pay for a laboratory to be based at the new Research Institute of Medical Cell Biology at the new infirmary in Edinburgh.

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