On Monday 04 January 2016 our beautiful baby girl, Phoebe, was born sleeping. Phoebe made it all the way to 41+4 weeks growing and kicking away inside me making her presence felt, but sadly she got into distress in labour and passed away before she was delivered by emergency c-section. Unfortunately, the amazing doctors at Torbay hospital were unable to save her.

David and I have never known such loss, we had never heard of stillbirth, and we were not prepared for something so heart-breaking to happen to us.

With the help of our wonderful family and friends we made it through those awful first few weeks. We were fortunate enough to also be able to attend a SANDS support meeting in Exeter where we began to really comprehend the reality of living with stillbirth. We could talk to other bereaved parents on their grief journey's.

SANDS are a lovely charity helping bereaved parents come to terms with their loss however, they also work with hospitals to support bereaved families in their time of need, raise awareness of stillbirth, and research ways to help prevent stillbirth in the future. 17 babies are stillborn in the UK every day. That's 17 bereaved parents having to experience their world falling apart; their hopes and dreams shattered.   

David and I wanted to do our part and give back to the charity which continues to help us and could help save other babies like Phoebe in the future. David will be running the Chudleigh Carnival 6 Road Race on Friday 15 July 2016 and I will be running the Exeter 10K on Wednesday 20 July 2016 (with running support from my lovely friend Lisa Wills). We would really appreciate your support - big or small - for this worthy charity.