News: Read how Cristiano Ronaldo showed support for baby born premature in Dubai

Football star Cristiano Ronaldo has learnt his support for a campaign to raise money for a Portuguese family whose baby was born prematurely in Dubai.

The Real Madrid star, who this week picked up the 2013-14 Golden Shoe award for being Europe's top goal scorer last season, posted a link to the on his own Facebook page with the message, “Let's support baby Margarida. No help is too small”.

Margarida (Portuguese for Daisy) was born after just 25 weeks pregnancy weighing 410 grams to parents Goncalo and Eugenia Queiroz.

However, their health insurance does not cover the premature baby birth, and the costs of treatment since their girl was born are growing at a rate of around $2,000 per day, according to hospital bills posted on the campaign’s Facebook page.

After the baby’s grandmother thanked Ronaldo for publicizing the family's plight on his Facebook page, the footballer responded with a message in Portuguese, "Any help could make the difference. I hope the whole family can stay strong”.

The family, who moved to Dubai last year for work, set up the Facebook page to help them pay their massive bills and within days the campaign went viral in their home country, raising over 100,000euro ($123,953) in just one week – mainly from people in Portugal. They even had a TV appearance, where Eugenia outlined the reality of their plight.

“We have raised over 100,000 euro, mainly from Portugal, but it's not even close to being enough,” Eugenia told Portuguese TV network TVI.

The baby was due to be born in February next year and the earliest that she is due to be released from hospital is around the due date, which means that she will spend at least four months in the neo natal unit.

The family hopes to transfer Margarida to a public hospital in Dubai, where the costs would be much lower than the private hospital where she is staying, but the current lack of incubators means that’s not possible right now.