Copyright walesonline
A proud dad to baby twins was found dead on the sofa by his loving partner. Chloe Powles, 34, was days away from celebrating the first birthday of the couple’s twins when she discovered Alex Green’s body in the living room of their Pencoed home. The 30-year-old, also dad to 12-year-old Gracie, had taken to sleeping on the sofa in order not to disrupt babies Livie and Georgina who both have rare health conditions that need constant treatment and were sleeping in the couple’s bedroom. Reliving the events of August 20 this year Chloe said at around 2am Alex headed upstairs to ask if he could come to bed. Not wanting to wake the girls Chloe told him to go back downstairs. For the biggest stories in Wales first sign up to our daily newsletter . A few hours later Chloe came downstairs to find Alex’s lifeless body on the sofa. She said: “At 8.04am I rang the ambulance because when I came down in the morning he was sitting up on the sofa, blue and stiff. “It ruined me – I can’t even put it into words.” A post-mortem examination has yet to take place and Chloe has been told it could take months or even years to find out the cause of death. Not wanting to be in the same house as the one she found her partner’s body in Chloe is hoping to move home in the near future. Two days later after the tragedy Livie and Georgina celebrated their first birthday but as Alex’s family sang Happy Birthday to the twins Chloe had to walk out of the room. She said: “I couldn’t do it. “I’m not really coping but I have to be okay for the girls. “It’s just hard – I’d love to just not be okay but I have the girls to think about.” The pair had been together for two years after rekindling their relationship from years earlier having met through Alex’s sister who is also Chloe’s best friend. With Alex having an older daughter and Chloe being mum to now eight-year-old daughter Charlie the couple were surprised to find out their family was growing. They were even more shocked to find out they were having twins as they don’t run in either side of the family. Tests carried out during Chloe’s pregnancy found that one of the babies was not growing as much as the other twin but doctors were unable to determine the cause. A 33 weeks pregnant Chloe gave birth to her daughters Livie and Georgina on August 22, 2024, with Livie being half the size of her twin sister. The newborns were moved to intensive care where they stayed for months after the birth. Chloe said: “I had them and they were in intensive care and the special care baby unit in Cardiff for two months until we could come home. “Livie was still tiny, Georgina was still double the size of her, but they just thought it was just twins and she’d catch up.” A month after coming home and as Livie was still very small for her age the consultant was worried Chloe was not feeding her as much as Georgina. As this wasn’t the case after another two months Livie was admitted to hospital where a feeding tube was installed. Giving her the same amount of milk as her twin sister doctors were concerned when she couldn’t keep the food down. At around seven months old fluids were pumped through Livie’s veins to try to help her grow and get the nutrients she needed. Blood tests were then carried out on the tiny baby and it was discovered she had Russell-Silver Syndrome (RSS) – a rare form of dwarfism. Livie now has a permanent tubing in her nose for feeding because she doesn’t eat enough. She has been referred for a peg in the stomach to feed her as she often pulls out the tube from her nose. After lowering the amount of milk she would need Chloe said Livie is “thriving” at 8lb 1oz at nearly 15 months old. But that is half the size she is expected to be with her syndrome so she is visiting doctors to start growth hormones. On her first birthday this year Livie was the smallest one-year-old in the UK. Chloe said: “Alex wanted to do the Guinness World Record but we just never go around to it because he passed away.” Within the first few months of the twins being born Georgina seemed “fine” until Alex noticed something in her eyes. Chloe said: “She was a happy baby and slept through the night. “She was amazing – never without a smile on her face. “And then this one night Alex said to me: ‘There’s something wrong with her eyes.’” Alex had noticed purple colouring in Georgina’s eyes but Chloe didn’t think anything of it at first. After noticing six-month-old Georgina had stopped following her with her eyes and stopped focusing Chloe spoke to the doctors who agreed they would need to take a look at her. With the eye doctor at the hospital not usually seeing children as young as Georgina the twins’ consultant pushed for an appointment. Thinking there could be something wrong with Georgina’s vision Chloe had accepted the fact that her daughter may be visually impaired. She said: “The thought of Georgina not being able to see was fine – I could deal with that. “I went to the appointment with the eye doctor. “He put drops in her eyes and then he put his big glasses on and looked into her eyes. He then took his glasses off, pushed his chair back, and said: ‘You need to go back to the ward, I need to get hold of specialists in Birmingham. I can see tumours in her eyes.’” Within 24 hours they were in Birmingham where she was put under anaesthetic and doctors looked into her eyes and found four tumours in both eyes. The next day, back in Cardiff, Georgina had a central line put in and she began chemotherapy she would be on for the next six months. As she was so young she was only able to have six sessions of the chemo as it was so intensive and her body wouldn’t be able to cope with any more. Every month Georgina would have chemotherapy in hospital in Cardiff and then visit a specialist eye doctor in Birmingham to have lasers pointed at the tumours in her eyes. Doctors then informed Chloe the tumours were continuing to grow in both eyes meaning Georgina needed chemotherapy injected directly into her eyes every two weeks – one eye at a time. Her left eye has reacted positively to the treatment and now she is expected to only need one more session as the tumour has decreased. But Georgina has already lost her central vision in her right eye and the tumours continue to grow. Chloe said: “Every two weeks I go to Birmingham – the tumour has doubled every time. The chemo is not working at all in her right eye. “If she didn’t have cancer in her left eye the right would have been removed but doctors are working hard to save the eye. “Chemo is now being injected into her groin through an artery and pumped through the veins of the eye.” If this new course of treatment doesn’t help reduce the tumour in Georgina’s eye then doctors are considering radiotherapy. This will mean the 15-month-old would face the treatment alone for around seven weeks as she will be radioactive. Having to watch her daughter go through such intensive treatment at such a young age has been “torture” for Chloe. She said: “She doesn’t stop smiling – she has no idea what’s going on. “Then she gets wiped out and then comes back to herself. It’s torture watching her get wiped away, then back to her happy self, then she gets wiped away again when she’s going through the treatment. “It is torture to watch her go through everything. Everything is my decision now without Alex – what if I make the wrong decision?” Chloe has been unable to work at her job as a stadium steward as she is taking care of her daughters and is constantly back and forth to multiple hospitals with one being in Birmingham. Not being able to work has left Chloe struggling to afford travel to and from hospital with her daughters. A JustGiving page was set up by Chloe’s friends to help support her financially. Chloe said she was “so thankful and grateful” for the people who have already donated to help her and her family. Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here . We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice .
