Dan and I are raising money for two of the incredible charities that are supporting us following the death of our beautiful baby, George. The support that both Petals and Sands provide to bereaved parents is absolutely invaluable and we cannot thank them enough for all that they have done for us. We genuinely do not think we could have survived our devastating loss without their continued care and support. Please click the links below to make a donation.

Donate to Petals- the baby loss counselling charity

Donate to Sands- the still birth, and neonatal death charity

Our story:

Whilst it is extremely difficult to share, we believe that it is important that George’s story is told.

In the early hours of 10th March 2021, I went into premature labour. We were extremely frightened and made our way immediately to the hospital where we were reassured that our baby should be fine (we didn’t know the sex). We waited for some time while the Consultants deliberated over the best way to safely deliver our baby. The decision was made that I would deliver by caesarean section, but when my uterus was opened the baby had already moved too far down into my pelvis, meaning that delivery was extremely difficult. We learnt that we had a baby boy - and in the silence we were asked his name. George sustained a significant injury to his head during the delivery - a subgaleal haemorrhage, which is a bleed between the skull and the scalp.

George was absolutely breathtaking … Our beautiful baby boy. We cannot even begin to describe how gorgeous he was. Just perfect. His full name is George Daniel Donovan Thomason - after the best men I have ever had the honour to know and love, my husband and my grandfather.

Whilst his head injury was a huge concern, George’s initial brain scans in Northampton did not show any bleeding inside the brain. He had lots of blood products and medicine to keep him comfortable and to improve his condition. We will always be thankful to the wonderful paediatricians at Northampton because with lots of ups, and some downs, our boy was able to fight hard to get himself well enough to move to a more specialist unit at Leicester Royal Infirmary. He was still very poorly due to his head injury, but we were so hopeful and proud of the progress our George had made.

Dan and I followed our little fighter to Leicester and prepared ourselves for weeks of travelling to and from the hospital. When we arrived at Leicester, we stayed with George for hours. He was stable and the subgaleal haemorrhage had stopped.

Devastatingly, our beautiful boy had neurological tests and further brain scans which showed that he had developed significant bleeds in both sides of his brain - interventricular haemorrhage - and the damage was irreparable. We cannot say anymore, because the pain and love is beyond description.

We made the decision to make George comfortable and we held him close … There was so much love in the room between the three of us. We have memories to treasure for a lifetime.

George died peacefully in our arms late in the evening of 11th March 2021. We love our son with all our hearts. He is our Gorgeous George and we are so incredibly proud of him.

The last two years have been the most challenging of our lives. Without my counsellor from Petals, and without our friends at Sands we still do not know how we could even contemplate a life without George. Gradually we are rebuilding around our loss and we want to help these amazing charities to continue to support anyone who has been affected by the death of a baby.

That is why we are appealing to you to donate via the link to our Petals and Sands pages. Petals provide counselling after baby loss - they specialise in supporting parents who experience mental health issues as a result of bereavement, trauma or loss related to pregnancy including miscarriage, stillbirth, termination for medical reasons and neonatal loss. Sands support families through their baby loss when they need it, for as long as they need it. The work that these organisations do is dependent on donations. Dan and I would like to ask you please to make a donation to either or both charities so that they can continue the incredible work that they do.

Thank you.