FRANTIC mum Claire Sharp felt she had nowhere to turn when her newborn twins would not eat and took to frequent bouts of screaming and vomiting.

GPs and health visitors put it down to Ella and Evie being underweight and said the problems would go away with time.

But that was until a chance meeting with a paediatrician at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

That consultant was Dr Sarah Griffiths and her intervention has prompted Claire and husband Rich to nominate her for a Sentinel Our Heroes award.

She diagnosed her babies' mystery symptoms as reflux which is common in children but severe in only a few infants such as the Sharp twins.

Dr Griffiths put them on three lots of medication to be mixed into their milk and not only have the symptoms now passed, but the tots – now 14 months – are gaining weight.

Claire, aged 34, of Barlaston, said: "I have two older sons but even so I still got very worried about how Ella and Evie were suffering."

The daughters of Claire and Rich – the 37-year-old owner of Princess Kitchens and Bathrooms in Etruria and Newcastle – were born five weeks prematurely at the North Staffordshire maternity hospital. Evie weighed three pounds and Ella was only two pounds heavier so they were both kept in the hospital's neonatal unit for two-and-a-half weeks.

A few weeks later and still not putting on enough weight, Claire had to take Evie back to the hospital last July for a hernia operation.

She said: "It was there that we met Dr Griffiths who happened to be the on-call consultant that day. We took the opportunity to tell her all about the other problems they were having and she just took over the case.

"Everything went so well after that the twins were well enough to be discharged from her care five weeks ago and are gaining weight.

"But it was not just Dr Griffiths's professional expertise that struck us – it was how she would always go the extra mile for us."

Claire, who works as a physiotherapist at the same hospital, also told how she was admitted to the Royal Infirmary with meningitis last year at the same time as her twins were in the Cheetham's ward of the City General.

She said: "There was quite a distance between where me and the twins were but Dr Griffiths kept coming across to tell me how they were doing. Later she would call me with an update on their progress."

Dr Griffiths said: "I feel honoured to be put forward and the Sharps are a lovely family. I find the work here challenging but interesting. The patients and their families are fantastic."