LOOKING at Lucie Jansen and Cathy Turner sitting in a caf in Chiswick, with their two happy bouncing baby boys, it is easy to assume that they both have the perfect life.

And indeed, they have better lives than most, but both these women's lives, it emerges, have been changed forever by the birth of their babies, having been touched by a near death experience and personal tragedy.

I met them to talk about the women and babies national charity WellBeing, whose Chiswick branch Lucie set uplast year, following the birth of her son, Oliver.

Lucie's story began with a difficult pregnancy. She had severe morning sickness for over ten weeks and became really unwell at 30 weeks. She began to develop swelling, headaches and itchiness and at 37 weeks gained stone in one week. It was at this point she realised her symptoms were not just the usual by-products of pregnancy and went to the doctors.

She was told to go to Queen Charlotte's Hospital immediately, where they discovered that she had a blood pressure of 150, which rose, within two hours, to a dangerous 185. She was told she had pre-eclampsia and they needed to speed up the labour. After 26 hours of labour and an epidural, Lucie had an emergency Caesarian section.

She explains: "It was only four days afterwards that I realised I had nearly died. If I hadn't gone to the doctors when I did, I may not have been around now. At the time though, I was in blissful ignorance. We didn't realise that having 10 doctors around us was really abnormal, as it was our first baby. We had no idea that it was touch and go with me for a while."

Cathy, on the other hand, had a good pregnancy and relatively easy birth, but her story involves her sister, Susy, who had become pregnant two weeks earlier than Cathy. All through the pregnancy, the two sisters bought clothes together, had scans at the same time and made plans about future holidays, Christmases and talked about what their new family life would be like together.

Within two weeks of each other they gave birth, Susy to a baby girl called Jessica and Cathy to a little boy, called Archie. The whole family was delighted to have the first of the next generation, healthy and happy.

Jessica got an infection in hospital and was given antibiotics for it. She recovered and it was only four weeks after they left hospital, that one day Jessica suddenly got a little irritable. Susy took her home, while her husband went to a Chelsea match, neither of them suspecting anything was truly amiss.

By the time Susy got home, Jessica was white. She called a paramedic, who came within four minutes. By this time Jessica was blue and when he held her up, her arms were limp. They dashed to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, but Jessica was dead on arrival. She had died of a condition called myocarditis.

Both sisters worlds were shattered. "Susy's tried to be strong and move on and forward with her life, but my guilt is enormous. I have this wonderful healthy baby and Susy should have too, but she hasn't. We don't really talk about it too much as it's too awkward. Every time she sees Archie, it's a glaring reminder of what Jessica would have been doing, whether it's the first time Archie sits up or whatever," Cathy explained.

"Christmas was horrendous. There should have been two grandchildren, but there was only one. I was being congratulated, while people were comforting Susy."

Cathy's involvement with the Wellbeing charity started because: "I wanted to be open about our story. This was the first disaster in an other otherwise blessed family life. We had assumed it would always carry on without any major incidents, but these things can happen to you. I wanted to do something positive and try and help prevent other women and families having to go through the same devastation that we have."

Lucie adds: "The birth of Oliver was a very humbling experience and I just wanted to do something to help. I met the chairman of WellBeing, Sir Victor Blank, at a charity cricket match and two months later set up the Chiswick branch."

Lucie, who went back to work this week, is a brand manager for Proctor and Gamble and has set the charity's targets high. "We want to really make a difference and we want to raise more money than the other 30 branches in the country, so we have set our target at £250,000 over the next five years."

Their next big fund-raiser is a ball at the Dorchester Hotel on May 15 and tickets at £85 are currently being sold.

Lucie and Cathy have already enlisted support from many local companies like Fishworks, Pissarro's and Riverside Sports Club, who are donating prizes for the raffle, which will be held on the night.

WellBeing began in 1964 and is kept going by the fact that 50 per cent of stillbirths still remain unexplained, a fifth of all pregnancies still end in miscarriage or stillbirth and one in 10 babies are born prematurely. 75 per cent of women with ovarian cancer will die as a result.

Call Lucie on 020 8563 8080 or email ljansenwellbeing@aol.com