Anne McEwan
Anne & Gary's Page
Fundraising for Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity
Story
Dear All
On Sunday 29th of August, 2010, my husband Gary will don his running shorts to take part in the Paisley 10k run.
Gary is doing this run on behalf of SANDS in memory of our baby boy Glen Lennox McEwan.
SANDS (stillbirth and neonatal death charity) is a UK charity which offers support to bereaved parents and their families when their baby dies. They work alongside health and social care professionals to improve the quality of services provided. SANDS also promotes research into the causes of stillbirths and neonatal deaths and changes in practice that could save more babies lives.
Every year in the UK over 6200 babies are either stillborn or die within the first 4 weeks of their young lives. That is almost 18 babies every single day.
Our story:
Gary and I had waited a long time for Glen.
We had relocated to Cyprus in Aug 2008 with work and in May 2009, I found out I was pregnant.
We were both delighted and started making plans to return home to Scotland in Aug 2009 to have our baby.
The months flew by and we had everything prepared for our new arrival. We knew we were having a little boy.
On the 5th of January, I went into labour at 38 weeks gestation. We were both so excited, anxious and desperate to meet our son. Everything was going well until around 4.30pm when Glen’s little heart rate began to slow. I was told that I would need an emergency c section and I felt Glen kick me at 5.00pm. At that point I thought that yes we may have a poorly little boy but we would be fine and I would be able to call family and friends by about 7.00pm. Just before I was about to go under anaesthetic at 5.10pm, the consultant appeared by my side and said those awful words, “I’m sorry, your baby has gone”. Our world fell apart. We were truly devastated. I went on to give birth to Glen at 1.35am on 6th January, 2010.
No parent should ever have to arrange the funeral of their child.
It is just over six months since we lost Glen. Not a day goes by that Gary and I don’t think of him. The early days were very difficult, however with the love and support of family and friends we are coming to terms with our loss.
Both Gary and I are truly privileged to be mummy and daddy to baby Glen, our first born.
We could never have imagined that this could ever have happened to us and were most likely quite naive. However it is a sad fact, this can happen to anyone. I was considered to have a textbook pregnancy and classed as low risk.
We know that we cannot bring Glen back, however if we can help to raise awareness and funds for future research then perhaps we can save other babies lives.
For this reason, I would ask you to dig deep and donate now. Any donation no matter how small will be greatly received. Please do this for Glen and all the other Angel babies. Help us to try and make a difference for the future.
Donating through Just Giving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with Just Giving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
Many thanks for taking the time to read.
Gary & Anne McEwan
In memory of our baby boy Glen Lennox McEwan born sleeping 6th January 2010