A kind woman has become the breast milk milkmum collecting and delivering gallons of liquid gold to hungry babies.
Leanne Forbes, 29, has donated 190 litres - more than 330 pints - of her own breast milk to other mothers in need through her local baby bank by the time she stopped breastfeeding her youngest child aged one.
But the A&E receptionist was so happy to have helped that she decided to volunteer her time to collect and drop off milk from other mums for the service.
Now the mum-of-four collects and transports gallons of liquid gold from over-productive mums to those who are unable or struggling to breastfeed their neonatal babies every month.
Leanne said: "Everybody thinks I'm crazy when I tell them I'm sort of like a breast milk milkman.
"I know a lot of the women on my round because you do go to the same addresses each time.
"I say hello and have a laugh with many of them, just like a milkman would.
"It's a very special and emotional thing to donate and share breast milk, so many mums are going through their own journey or troubles and I get to help them with a part of that."
Leanne, who lives at home in Barnstaple, Devon, with her four children, Jacob, seven, Evangeline, six, Henry, three, and Poppy, one, didn't even know about breast milk donation until a midwife suggested it.
After struggling with the mental and physical toll of breastfeeding her first two kids, the mum was forced to top up with formula and had to stop nursing when they were six months old.
But with her second pair, Leanne produced more than enough milk to feed Henry and Poppy for a year, and asked her midwife for advice on what to do with the excess.
Having started volunteering to help with the collections last July, Leanne now has to carefully plan her timings to ensure that she collects and drops off all the milk within a five hour window, to ensure it stays fresh.
After collecting the milk from the mothers and safely storing it in freezer boxes in her boot, Leanne takes it to the Healthy Baby Hub in Tiverton, Devon, where it is kept frozen until it can be pasteurised and distributed to premature babies in need.
Leanne said: "When I had my first two children I really struggled to breastfeed, I found it really painful and I didn't want to use formula but I ended up having to.
"But when I had my second two I had a huge oversupply, I was expressing myself all the time.
"My midwife suggested I donated it but I didn't even know I could do that or that it was a thing.
"I ended up donating 190 litres in total and it felt like such a special thing to be able to do.
"When I finished, I didn't want to stop helping, I felt like I needed to carry on doing something.
"I have made a great network of friends at the milk bank and out in the communities.
"It's extremely rewarding and I feel so lucky to be able to do it."
