The Christie clan are committed to raising funds and awareness for SANDS Lothians after the support we received after the loss of our twins in 2013.  We made some plans for crazy things to try and drum up some money for the charity close to our hearts over 2017 - 2018, we hope you can help support us a little on each challenge as we go along!

So as it stands, we have completed all the challenging events that we set ourselves way back in April 2017 and together with glorious support from family, friends, and public support- the target initially set was well and truly smashed!   

What we managed in 2017...

Courteener/ Charlatans ticket raffle: £214 raised

Challenge one: A whopping £529 raised.

Sandie with friends Michelle and Kerr completed the Spartan sprint over 6km with 23 obstacles in the rain up, over and down Spittal Farm fields in under 2:03 hours.  All obstacles were attempted but were pretty challenging as you would expect!  Bobby and his buddy Ollie competed in the junior Spartan- they rocked it!  Thank you so much to those who sponsored us to motivate us to do our best- all the financial votes of confidence powered us through.

To highlight baby loss awareness week (9th - 15th October) we had challenge two and three to be getting on with...

Challenge two:  an astounding £953 raised.  On the 8th October we hosted our 'braw to be bald as a coot' family head shaving party (Carly's curls were exempt) we all braved the shave! Sandie had been growing her hair especially for this reason and it has been donated to the Little Princess Trust. The lads got jazzy zigzags that were voted by Gordy's Bright Horizon pre school friends!  The staff, parents and children from the nursery also helped in fundraising too!


Massive thanks for their kind offer of time, skills and effort goes to:
Plaits:  Michelle Archibald https://www.facebook.com/michellehoneywest/
http://instagram.com/michelle_honeywest

Baldness and the lads' shave patterns: Aaron Michaels https://www.facebook.com/aaronmichaelsbarber/
http://instagram.com/aaron_michaels_barber      🐦 @AM_Barbershop ‬

Challenge three:  COMPLETED!  15th October wave of light in remembrance: In an unseasonably warm Amsterdam, Grant and Chris both got round with only a few minor aches and pains. Grant said that honestly he loved it! Having trained more for this than probably anything else in his life, he felt some pressure to get round, particularly after so many people had been generous with their money.  Luckily Amsterdam is a great city to do a marathon in. The lads received a huge amount of support from the local crowds with lots of people asking us about the charity they were running for.  It was something that struck a chord with lots of people.  The lads both did decent times (for their age!) and enjoyed the Monday after relaxing in the city (talking of enjoying Amsterdam- we won't mention Chris's 3 hour trip home from the marathon itself where he 'got lost' apparently….).

Thanks  again to everyone who helped with training and of course all you super stars who sponsored Grant and Chris, it really is greatly appreciated.

In 2018 we crossed the target and had some fun doing so too...

Challenge four: An outstanding £607.43 raised.  Held on Saturday 27th January 2018, it was a Karaoke/ disco night- at the Murieston Cricket Club.  Thanks to Ian Smith (Livingston 41 Club Chairman), Paul Mceleney (Livingston Round Table Chairman) and Chris for the brilliant music, food and atmosphere, and also to Jenny Anderson at the Cricket Club who hosted the fun at a great venue.

The glamour and grooves were on, the singing standard was high and it was overall an epic night of retro, classic and modern belters with some floor filler tunes in between.  The raffle received plenty of interest with prizes kindly donated by Arron Michaels Barber, Michelle at Honey West, Tesco, The Scottish Seabird Sanctuary, Morrisons, The Co-Op Livingston South, Thorntons, Escape Livingston, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks drive thru,The Works, The Beauty Clinic Uphall, Back2Fitness at the Hilton Edinburgh Airport, Blackwood Beauty, Diane Bridge- PartyLite consultant, Leanne Smart- Stella and Dot consultant.

Extra cheeky challenge five set by Nicola (SANDS Lothians CEO) as a wee laugh:  COMPLETED!  During  snowmageddon 2018 that was the Beast of the East and Storm Emma,  Grant and Sandie took to the snowed in back garden in their SANDS Lothians vests and leggings to do some burpees in near the anniversary of the twins and to raise awareness that every day- 15 babies die in utero, during childbirth or shortly after- in the UK, that is #15babiestoomany

In case you are wondering, this is why we feel driven to do these things...

Thanks to the excellent work that SANDS Lothians carries out, we were fortunate to have received supportive care by informed midwives at St Johns, in a space which SANDS Lothians have campaigned to keep as a room for bereaved parents to deliver and spend time with their babies. Then when we were struggling to come to terms with falling pregnant again- the guilt, irrational fears and constant feeling of impending loss, Nicola (now  SANDS Lothians CEO) took Grant's call and she kindly offered us counselling in our home as group meetings were difficult for us to attend as we had Bobby to look after.  She really helped us to process our experience of loss and help us to move forward with our grief.  We will always be indebted to Nicola for her compassion and support.

SANDS Lothians has diversified to offer support to bereaved parents- counselling and support groups in various forums to suit.  They are shaping how bereavement care is being delivered in NHS Lothian services.  They provide specialist training days- informing and educating in how best to offer support to soon-to- be or bereaved parents.  

SANDS Lothians are proving to be the gold standard in their approach but to continue to be the best- it takes effort, time and of course, money.

If you have managed to read this far down- good job!  Just one last point to add that the money you donate is sent straight directly to SANDS Lothians (that means that no, Sandie wasn't buying a wig with the cash come October)

Thank you for your support, every pound you donate means the world to us and makes a big difference to SANDS Lothians.