Stephen Wilshaw
The Chloe Cycling Challenge (CCC)
Fundraising for Bliss
Story
The birth of a baby is the most wonderful experience.
Premature birth, however, can create the most stressful and traumatic time for the child, parents and all family connections.
The death of a premature baby after weeks of intense struggle to survive is almost too painful for parents to endure. This pain had to be confronted by our friends John & Lorna when, after being born at 25 weeks, their little girl, Chloe’s fight to live, though heroic, was sadly not enough. Chloe died at the end of November last year after 12weeks striving to have, what would have been, a life surrounded with love from wonderful parents.
Even with fantastic support from family and friends to help them, John and Lorna found themselves in a situation they were unprepared to cope with, and spent 3 long, tiring months in neonatal intensive care with their little girl before losing her. This was incredibly tough for them. The rest of the family; sisters, brothers and parents, also struggled through a mix of magical and terrifying times before suffering such loss. John and Lorna were further helped by a wonderful charity, Bliss, who are there to support people through the experiences of having premature or sick babies. Whether babies come home, or do not, the rollercoaster parents experience is unimaginably tough. Many don’t have family and friends to help them. Bliss provide practical support and information to help. They fund and deliver training for nurses to put the baby and family at the heart of all care provided. They also campaign to improve policy and practice and they enable life-changing research.
Everyone connected to Chloe learned so much about the issues and the problems associated with premature birth. John and Lorna made that happen. Despite their sadness, they are working to build a legacy for Chloe which does as much as possible to help those who have to deal with such trauma. John and Lorna weren’t able to bring baby Chloe home. Bliss work tirelessly to ensure that all the babies born premature or sick in the UK have the very best chance of survival, and quality of life. They need money to do this.
Lorna's parents Hugh and Kathy Carmichael, naturally want to help. So, this year we are setting ourselves, Hugh, Kathy, Christine Johnson and Steve Wilshaw, a set of challenges. It is mainly bike based and will be in France following in some of the pedal strokes of famous Tour de France.
The death of a premature baby after weeks of intense struggle to survive is almost too painful for parents to endure. This pain had to be confronted by our friends John & Lorna when, after being born at 25 weeks, their little girl, Chloe’s fight to live, though heroic, was sadly not enough. Chloe died at the end of November last year after 12weeks striving to have, what would have been, a life surrounded with love from wonderful parents.
Even with fantastic support from family and friends to help them, John and Lorna found themselves in a situation they were unprepared to cope with, and spent 3 long, tiring months in neonatal intensive care with their little girl before losing her. This was incredibly tough for them. The rest of the family; sisters, brothers and parents, also struggled through a mix of magical and terrifying times before suffering such loss. John and Lorna were further helped by a wonderful charity, Bliss, who are there to support people through the experiences of having premature or sick babies. Whether babies come home, or do not, the rollercoaster parents experience is unimaginably tough. Many don’t have family and friends to help them. Bliss provide practical support and information to help. They fund and deliver training for nurses to put the baby and family at the heart of all care provided. They also campaign to improve policy and practice and they enable life-changing research.
Everyone connected to Chloe learned so much about the issues and the problems associated with premature birth. John and Lorna made that happen. Despite their sadness, they are working to build a legacy for Chloe which does as much as possible to help those who have to deal with such trauma. John and Lorna weren’t able to bring baby Chloe home. Bliss work tirelessly to ensure that all the babies born premature or sick in the UK have the very best chance of survival, and quality of life. They need money to do this.
Lorna's parents Hugh and Kathy Carmichael, naturally want to help. So, this year we are setting ourselves, Hugh, Kathy, Christine Johnson and Steve Wilshaw, a set of challenges. It is mainly bike based and will be in France following in some of the pedal strokes of famous Tour de France.
The CCC targets are based on some of Chloe’s statistics:
12 weeks of life…..12 TdF Mountain cols
37 weeks of equivalent gestation ….37,000 ft of ascent
1,565 grams at death……1,565 km
805 grams at birth……805metres open water swim… to help cool down !
13 skin to skin cuddles….there will be none of that on this trip, we will be too tired !
150bpm was Chloe’s target heart beat. Our maximum heart beat, for our age, is around 150bpm and with every one of those matching heartbeats we will know that we will be doing this for Chloe’s legacy.
12 weeks of life…..12 TdF Mountain cols
37 weeks of equivalent gestation ….37,000 ft of ascent
1,565 grams at death……1,565 km
805 grams at birth……805metres open water swim… to help cool down !
13 skin to skin cuddles….there will be none of that on this trip, we will be too tired !
150bpm was Chloe’s target heart beat. Our maximum heart beat, for our age, is around 150bpm and with every one of those matching heartbeats we will know that we will be doing this for Chloe’s legacy.