When Lower Hutt mum Tineke Snow suffered a suspected brain haemorrhage, the one thing she really wanted to do for her 10-week-old baby, Jackson, was keep breastfeeding him.

But with blinding headaches and forced to lie flat on her back in hospital, Tineke couldn’t have kept feeding him without a massive amount of help from her mum, Carmen Jennings, from Waikanae Beach. That’s why we chose Carmen as our first Hidden Heroes winner, in the awards supported by PORSE and Little Treasures.

Without hesitation, Carmen took leave from her job as a school principal and moved into a poky hospital room with Tineke. "I needed someone to stay with us in hospital 24 hours a day," she says. Carmen looked after the baby and brought him to Tineke for feeds. When Tineke’s husband, Phil, came to spend time with her, Carmen would then head home to look after their other children, Tineke’s stepson Taylor, 10 and six-year-old daughter McKenzie.

"It was the one thing I could do for him," Tineke says of her determination not to put her baby on the bottle. Jackson had been born a month early and breastfeeding had been a struggle to establish, so she wanted to persist.

Tineke is home from hospital now, but not entirely well and still being monitored. She’s not allowed to drive, so being able to breastfeed is really important to her.

I cannot thank Mum enough, because without her support I would not have been able to continue breastfeeding my baby."

Once Tineke was out of hospital, Carmen’s support continued. "She’s made meals for us, taken the older children out, had the kids and I to stay while my husband worked and has basically given her school holidays up to help look after us.

"Mum was so exhausted by all the goings-on, that on Christmas Day she ended up in bed vomiting with a terrible migraine from the stress."

"Mum would desperately love a bike, however, my dad refuses to buy her one. She’s borrowing mine so I know she would be rapt to receive one," said Tineke when nominating her mum.