A new dad's success in winning a national business award has put smiles on the faces of staff at the John Radcliffe Special Baby Unit.

Didcot entrepreneur Darren Elliott was due to receive a prestigious business award -- but then his two-day-old son Joshua was rushed to the unit with fluid on the lungs.

Darren Elliott with fiancee Josephine Carter and baby JoshuaMr Elliott hurried to the hospital instead of to the glittering celebrations at the award ceremony at London's Waldorf Meridien Hotel.

He said: "It was all very exciting. Now both my wife Jo and the baby are well and either I, or perhaps even Joshua, will soon present the unit with a cheque."

Mr Elliott is the first national Shell Livewire award winner to come from Oxfordshire.

The award organisers decided to give the £1,500 proceeds of the raffle to the Special Baby Unit. The money will be handed over soon.

Darren won the Oxfordshire Shell Livewire Award in 1997 with his company Gemini Translations, which specialises in providing translations for the pharmaceutical industry. His latest national prize is for "significant progress".

Roger Cowdrey, of Thames Valley Business Advice Centre TBAC, accepted the award on his behalf.

Darren, 30, started his business of translating technical texts in 1996 in an attic room. Now he has 400 translators, employs three people and turns over £250,000 a year.

Darren said: "The funny thing is that I can't speak any foreign languages at all.

He added: "I owe a lot to TBAC. They helped me every step of the way."