We (Sarah, Sophie and Clare) will be running the Oxford Half Marathon in 2025 in memory of Sarah and Andy's firstborn son Tate, honouring what would be his 10th birthday.

My sister is my rock and I'm thankful every day for the love and compassion she radiates.

Clare has always been steadfast and a constant in my life since we started working together in 2009. She ran the Oxford half on the morning of my baby shower in 2015 and as an avid runner has raised thousands of pounds for SSNAP over the years in his memory, notably running the Brighton Marathon in 2017!

Those who know me, know that 1. I hate running and 2. I'm not the biggest fan of exercise generally either but this really means something to me. This is something that I need to do for my little boy.

Tate's Story

Tate was born via emergency C-section on October 16th 2015. He had an undiagnosed condition with his placenta called Vasa Previa, which meant that his placenta did not form correctly and had exposed blood vessels running along the outside. The condition is not routinely scanned for on the NHS and in undiagnosed cases has a 95% mortality rate. If discovered and managed correctly with hospital admissions and early planned delivery, the outcome is usually positive.

When my waters broke unexpectedly and 4 weeks early, it caused the unprotected blood vessels to rupture, leading to catastrophic blood loss from him.

After his delivery, Tate was resuscitated for 11 minutes and given several blood transfusions. He was then taken to the neonatal unit in the John Radcliffe for cooling treatment to try to limit long-term brain damage.

SSNAP funds essential medical life-saving equipment, research, and support the amazing NHS staff on the neonatal unit with training and study days, to enable them to continue to provide the very best of care. The amazing staff on the unit not only provided Tate with the expert care that he needed, they also supported us as parents. We were given a family room near the unit to be close to him 24/7.

Tate lived on life support for 5 days in the neonatal unit, during which time his condition deteriorated. On day 4, an MRI scan confirmed that due to the blood loss and lack of oxygen, he had no brain activity. He died peacefully in our arms on October 21st and is missed very much by our whole family.