Rap Interiors and I are very pleased to be supporting child bereavement charity Abigail’s Footsteps this year. I will be trekking across the Annapurna Mountain Range in Nepal this coming October with the Family Business Place to raise money for this worthwhile cause.

Abigail’s Footsteps provides much needed help and support to these parents through trained counsellors and have made sure there have been significant improvements in the way bereaved parents and families are cared for in hospitals. David and Jo Ward setup the charity after their daughter Abigail was stillborn on the 29^th April 2009. It was through the lack of support they received at hospital and the fact that they only had three hours with their daughter that made them realise something needed to be done and so setup Abigail’s Footsteps.

Abigail’s also offers training for midwives to better educate them on how to deal with grieving parents. They have helped many families and one of their greatest contributions as a charity has been the creation and funding of the Abi Cooling Cot. As I mentioned David and Jo only
had three hours with Abigail after she was stillborn but the Abi Cooling Cot allows parents to be with their child for two to three days if they wish.

Being a father myself and seeing a very close friend’s daughter fight for her life after birth and thankfully survive puts everything else into perspective. I cannot begin to imagine the unbearable pain that some
parents have to go through if the unthinkable happens.

So, I am taking myself out of my comfort zone to trek across the Annapurna region of the Himalayas. Organised by Anita at the Family
Business Place and Adventurous Ewe, myself and seven other explorers will embark on the nine-day trip including six days of trekking across some of the most stunning areas of Nepal and into diverse climatic zones from tropical to freezing alpine peaks.

We will be departing on my birthday so the best present I could ask for would be to reach my target of £3000 and hopefully exceed it, raising a lot of money for Abigail’s Footsteps. If you are able to donate anything you can it would be amazing and really appreciated by myself and the charity.

Thanks for reading this story, I look forward to meeting the
other trekkers and wish everyone involved the best of luck.