A mum has completed 12 challenges in a year and smashed her fundraising target for a hospital that saved her baby daughter’s life.

Rachel Burns, 35, wanted to give something back after staff at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, Pembury, gave life-saving treatment to Ava, now four, when she was born.

The little girl suffered with meconium aspiration syndrome, a condition where a baby inhales some of their early faeces while still inside their mum and needs help breathing.

Ava was put on a ventilator and Mrs Burns, who also has a two-year-old daughter called Amber, said it was torture not being able to hold her newborn child for several days while she was hooked up to the machine.

So the mum-of-two, from Kings Hill, decided to raise £6,000 for a less invasive Vapotherm respiratory machine for the hospital’s neonatal unit, which will allow parents to get closer to their babies during treatment.

Mrs Burns, who owns software company Pinplay, devised Breathe4Pembury and in the past 12 months she has swum in ice cold water, climbed mountains, scaled buildings, abseiled, ran, cycled, rowed, been covered in coloured dye and walked a marathon.

She finished her mammoth challenge on Christmas Eve with a 5km run around Kings Hill with friends, sporting a festive jumper and a Santa hat.

Speaking before her final challenge, Mrs Burns revealed the Tough Mudder, an 11-mile course with 26 obstacles including climbing scaffolding, jumping into icy water, swimming upside down under a wire mesh and taking on “electroshock therapy” – a field of dangling wires with 10,000 volts going through them – was the hardest of all.

She said: “It’s been an epic year. Thank you everyone for helping me with my fundraising.”

She hit her fundraising target in September, but decided to continue raising money for additional hospital equipment and has now collected more than £7,000.

Visit the JustGiving page here.