It may not seem much of a sacrifice giving up cheese for a month, but Simon Guerrero from Seend Cleeve is depriving himself of his favourite food to raise cash for the baby unit that saved his son.

Despite an otherwise natural birth, little Oscar, the first child for Mr Guerrero and his fiancée Laura, suffered a crisis shortly after he arrived at the Royal United Hospital in Bath on June 11.

Mr Guerrero said: "There was a problem with Oscar's blood sugar levels, which were not stabilising properly. This is a very serious condition and the doctors were taking no chances.

"Oscar was put in the neonatal intensive care unit. He had a line put in up to his heart and they took blood from him every few hours to check his levels.

"After 12 days he was stabilising his own levels and he was allowed home."

The couple were so grateful for the prompt and effective action by the staff at the hospital they wanted to do something in return.

The hospital runs a Forever Friends appeal, set up by greetings card magnate Andrew Brownsword, and one of the appeals is specifically for the neonatal intensive care unit. All that remained was how Mr Guerrero was going to raise money for it.

Mr Guerrero said: "I'm not fit enough to run a marathon or climb a mountain, but someone suggested I could give up something for a month.

"I would say that I have never in my living memory gone for more than three days without cheese - and only then during an attack of food poisoning in Egypt.

"I put my addiction down to growing up with a Spanish dad, for whom a daily breakfast of cheese was the norm, and a mother who actually taught me how to make it when I was very small."

Some might think that giving up cheese is not only good for you, but not a particularly challenging sacrifice.

Mr Guerrero has got news for them. He said: "It has been very difficult. Most of the recipes I use involve cheese and it has been such a basic part of my diet that I am really missing it.

"Giving that Oscar wakes up every four hours at the moment and I am not in the happiest of frames of mind at work at the moment.

"I am eating a lot of fruit so maybe this will do me a lot of good in the end."

Mr Guerrero claims he has had no tips on how to make it through a completely cheese-free month. Even his brother is sceptical that he can succeed.

The only thing that might get him through is as much sponsorship as possible, so anyone who can help is asked to go to the website www.justgiving.com/nocheese, which will enable taxpayers to use gift aid to add a valuable 28 per cent to their donations.

n A Teddy Bears' Fun Day is being held in aid of NICU and the National Childbirth Trust at Bradford on Avon Rugby Club, Winsley Road on Sunday.The event runs from 11am to 4pm.