It's probably the shopping which brings it all home.

While we worry about lists, parking spaces and enough time, Kira Lothian is thinking oxygen packs and feeding tubes.

She grinned. Other people’s stories of supermarket hell just don’t cut it. When Kira goes shopping, her youngest child, Gabriell, has to go as well.

Gabriell – two on Sunday – was born 13 weeks premature. He has chronic lung disease, mild cerebral palsy and has no idea how to swallow. He has to be fed via a tube into his stomach.

“I don’t take any of the other children with me,” said Kira. “I wait until they are elsewhere, then I load the car with all the things Gabriell needs.

“He has to be connected to oxygen 24/7, so I have a portable oxygen pack strapped to my back, which is connected to Gabriell. That’s how I shop.”

Kira has just become the South-East’s Mum of the Year after a nationwide survey by parenting website Netmums, which was featured in the Gazette and on its website. She was nominated by her oldest son, Robert, 13.

“He didn’t tell me until I won,” she revealed. “He just said ‘Mum, I have got a surprise for you, you are the South-East’s Mum of the Year’. He had read about it in the Gazette, thought I more than qualified and sent off his e-mail.

“He sees what I, and the whole family, have to do for Gabriell. That was the main reason for his nomination. But I believe he is also thinking of the brother he lost. Sam was delivered by caesarian section six years ago and died not long after. Robert remembers how we all had to cope with that loss.”

Kira is 34. She looks ten years younger. “I’m pleased about that,” she laughed. “I’m ten years older than my husband, Alan, so that puts us at the same age!”

Alan is a soldier. He is a Lance Corporal with 16 Close Support Medical Regiment, based at Colchester Garrison. This is Kira’s second marriage; Robert and his brother, Zackery, 11, are children from that marriage.

“But it makes no difference. We – Alan, me, Robert, Zackery, Noah and Gabriell – are all a family,” she said, “and very close.”

As she said his name, four-year-old Noah appeared, stepping over the family dogs and clutching something fat and squishy. He had been in the kitchen making crabs from modelling clay. Later, he tried to distract me with tales of Transformers.

“Sam would have been Alan’s first child. He was in Iraq when that happened. It was soul-destroying for him,” she said. “But now we have Noah and Gabriell – and, yes, it is hard, even harder when Alan is away.”

Alan went to Afghanistan in June, but was called home in August. Gabriell had been taken into Addenbrooke’s Hospital with a lung infection. Two months later Gabriell was back in hospital, this time Colchester General Hospital. He was suffering from RSV, a particularly virulent strain of bronchitis.

“Gabriell has automatic access to the children’s ward at Colchester General,” she said. “I just phone to say he is poorly and I am told to bring him in. That time he stayed in hospital for three weeks.”

Gabriell looks healthy enough now. He was sitting in his specially-adapted chair throwing his toys on the floor. Or maybe at me. He laughs and, crucially, is very aware of what is going on around him.

“Mentally, he is fine. Physically, he has the body of a one-year-old and, while there is nothing wrong with his sight, his hearing isn’t so good,” she said.

“We take him for speech and language therapy and and he also has occupational therapy (OT). But that isn’t NHS because there is no OT service for young children in Colchester. So, we have to pay, and on a lance corporal’s salary, that isn’t easy.”

The Army, though, has helped. In fact, Kira, who insists her family are lucky, said its support has been “tremendous”.

Not only did the Army buy special camera equipment to monitor Gabriell in his bedroom, but also it is about to send in the builders to extend their house and has raised £2,500 to buy a specialist buggy.

But Robert would argue that his family are the lucky ones having Kira for a mum. Because on top of Gabriell ,she has three other children and, when Alan is on ops, she takes on the role of single mum.

“What would I love? For myself, to be able to go and have my hair done when I want. But there are so many other things which take priority and so many other things which need to be organised,” she said.

“I would say I am the great organiser. I’m sure that’s why I won this award. I can organise anything.”

Now she is about to organise again. Her prize for becoming Netmums South- East Mum of the Year is a family holiday in France courtesy of the competition’s co-sponsor, holiday specialist Siblu.

“It really is fantastic to actually be going on holiday – Alan and I never had a honeymoon, you know,” she smiled. “Gabriell will be coming, too, so now I have to contact insurance companies, oxygen companies and hospitals in France, just in case.”

  • To vote in the final of the Netmums/siblu holiday specialist Mum of the Year contest, visit the Families section of our site (see Related Links)