St Peter’s Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit has received a record-breaking £36,000 boost from Wentworth Golf Club.

It is the largest donation the hospital’s Early Birth’s Fund has ever received and was raised through a lady captain’s charity event at the exclusive club last year.

The money will be used to buy specialist cooling and brain function monitoring equipment, which will help babies born in distress.

Joy Garvey, Wentworth’s 2009 lady captain, said she chose the St Peter’s Early Birth’s Fund as their charity after hearing about it from Tania Gallagher, whose husband Joe is a member of the golf club.

Mr and Mrs Gallagher first became aware of the unit in 2001, when their triplets, Ryan, Luke and Olivia, were born prematurely.

Sadly, only Olivia survived and the couple has worked tirelessly since then to raise money for the unit and support other babies.

They have already donated £30,000 in 2003 to pay for The Gallagher Suite - a separate area for parents, which includes overnight accommodation for mothers.

Matron of the unit, Audrey Elmore, said: “Tania, Joe, their family and friends have done so much to support the unit and we’d like to sincerely thank them and Wentworth Golf Club for everything they’ve contributed.”