Royal baby glow shines on hospital that has special place in one's life

So much of the coverage on the day of the royal birth focused on Saint Mary's Hospital, where the most significant events of my life have taken place.

The British royal family - long regarded as one of the most successful businesses and most enduring brands in theUnited Kingdom - looks set for another bumper year following the birth of George Alexander Louis.
A week later, London is still bathing in a baby glow. Shops are advertising royal baby merchandise, the crowds outside Buckingham Palace are waving red white and blue teddy bears, and daily media bulletins are issued on the little boy's progress.
Experts are predicting a spike in tourism numbers this summer as royalists from around the world - and especially from the United States - swoop on London to spend their money on baby memorabilia.
If it were possible to buy shares in Windsor Inc, they would now be at an all-time high. It is infectious, I must admit. I could not look at the TV pictures of the day of the prince's birth without a tear in my eye.
Not because I'm a soft-hearted royalist - far from it - but because so much of the coverage on the day of the birth focused on Saint Mary's Hospital, in Paddington, west London - an institution that holds a special place in my life, and my heart. It has become a tradition in recent years that royal babies are delivered in the hospital's Lindo Wing, but I've got news for the arrivistes from Buckingham Palace: my family's association with St Mary's goes back longer, and is (I believe) just as profound as yours.
In fact, all of the really significant events of my life have taken place at St Mary's. I was born there, as was my sister, my only sibling.
My two oldest children were also delivered at St Mary's. As I watched the Duke of Cambridge proudly holding his little swaddled bundle on the steps of the Lindo Wing, I felt a pang of empathy, because I was doing exactly the same just over 20 years ago now with my firstborn daughter, Rosie.
So St Mary's has fond memories for me, but also some terrible ones. It was at the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit that my son Patrick was pulled back from the brink of death when he contracted a horrible infection as an infant.
It was only the skill of the unit's staff, led by consultant Parviz Habibi, the British doctor of Iranian ancestry who has made it a life-time crusade to combat childrens' illness, that saved Patrick's life.
More recently, St Mary's was the scene of another sad event, when my mother passed away there, aged 92. Distraught as I was by her death, I had much to be grateful to the hospital for: years before, its surgeons had given my mother the expert heart surgery that ensured she had a much longer and healthier life.
So I too have experienced the heights, and depths, of emotions at St Mary's, and whenever I'm in London I look up friends there. I suppose I resent Windor Inc's incursion into "my" hospital. St Mary's has become just another aspect of the royal brand, and one it is very hard to compete with. Some critics have even been so unkind as to point out that the Prince of Wales - the royal baby's grandfather - has been quick to see the business opportunities presened by the new baby, and now in his private business in Cornwall you can buy a selection of baby items such as teddy bears, commemorative plates and blankets all timed to coincide with the birth. That's the kind of marketing clout and brand awareness that will keep Windsor Inc on top for years to come.
 
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