As most people know, until recently I was pregnant with twins, and both Andy and I were so happy, we felt truly blessed to not only be having 1 child, but 2. We were so excited, and having had our 21weeks scan and found all was going well and the babies were healthy with no areas for concerns, we started a shopping spree for all the wonderful things they would need.

On Monday 15th June 2009, without warning, I went into early labour. At 00.01hrs on Tuesday 16th June our daughter Maily was born, followed quickly at 00.07hrs by our son Aston. They were 23weeks old to the day, but as they were so small, and premature they could not survive the world outside of their Mummy, and they died. maily was with us for 28minutes, Aston for 46minutes.

This has been a very difficult time for us and the family. So many questions WHY US?, WHAT DID I DO WRONG?, WAS IT MY FAULT?, DID MY BODY LET ME DOWN? Questions that the people of our local SANDS team know well, can understand, have all asked themselves the same things. At the local meetings you begin to feel sane, and normal, and comforted by other people who have also lost their babies. It is because of this charity we are slowly able to accept what has happened and move on looking to the future.

This story is just of our experience, but the frightening truth is that every day in the UK 17babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth. The sands charity not only supports people affected by the death of a baby, but also works at promoting research to reduce the loss of babies' lives, and it is for this reason we are doing the run at Heaton Park on Sunday 11th October, in order to raise money for such a worthwhile charity.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please please dig deep and donate now.

Thank You x