*Trigger warning: Pregnancy loss*

I have made the wild decision to sign up for a half marathon and have less than 12 weeks to go from zero to 13.1 miles.

Why, you may ask...? It's for a charity that is very close to us both. Here's our story (the short version)...  

Back in 2020 we made the decision to start growing our family. What we hadn't prepared for, was the difficult journey we had ahead of us.

During this time we have fallen pregnant seven times, however each pregnancy we have sadly lost. The excitement of seeing a positive pregnancy test and heartbeat has been replaced with increasing sadness and fear, saying goodbye to too many hopes and dreams. 

We have been fortunate that our local hospital is paired with the wonderful 'Petals'; a charity offering specialist counselling to women, men, and couples at no cost to the parents going through pregnancy or baby loss. 

We first reached out to Petals in October 2022. Our scans had been looking positive and we were starting to believe that maybe this pregnancy was going to be ok. But then, at a check up, the now heartbreakingly familiar silence came and at that point we knew that we had lost another baby.

The last 3.5 years have been tough and it's fair to say that life has stood still in many ways. The sense of a lack of control, whilst also dealing with loss and grief, has at times felt overwhelming. Alongside this, pregnancy and baby loss just isn't spoken about enough.

It is a sad reality that in the UK, 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage, 1 in 200 babies will be stillborn every year, over 5000 pregnancies will be terminated for medical reasons each year and 24 babies die shortly after birth every single week.

Counselling through Petals has given us the time and space needed and it's had a significant positive impact, enabling us to keep fighting forwards. They have been, and continue to be, a massive support and strength to us on our journey to one day hopefully being able to grow our family, and we will be forever grateful for their kindness.

We were fortunate to be able to benefit from Petals and I hope by sharing our story, it raises awareness of the impact pregnancy and baby loss has on people and just how important the support that Petals provides. We want to help make sure that other couples going through loss have the same free access to specialist counselling.

Since Petals began its incredible work, thousands of couples have been supported by their counsellors and in the last 12 months alone they have delivered over 5,200 counselling sessions.

Anything you can give would be hugely appreciated. I'm going to give this half marathon my absolute all!

We are Petals, the baby loss counselling charity. The specialist counselling service that we provide is life-changing for parents who have suffered the devastating loss of a pregnancy or death of a baby. We know that these tragic experiences not only result in grief but also in trauma. Our wonderful counsellors are there to help our clients navigate their grief and trauma and to guide them to a place of hope. Supporting this challenge you will be helping us to deliver more vital counselling sessions to bereaved parents when they need us.