After five years of trying (three of those being IVF years) on New Year’s Day 2018 we got the news we been longing for - we were pregnant. We cautiously celebrated as we knew we had a long way to go and we counted down the days until our 6 week scan. Finally the day arrived and we found out that we were expecting twins! We were overjoyed but tried not to get too excited as we knew that a twin pregnancy came with high risk.

At our 12 week scan we found out that one of our twins’ hearts
had stopped beating at around 10 weeks – we were devastated at the loss of our baby and terrified that something was going to happen to our surviving twin.

We made it to six months and were just beginning to believe
that our baby was going to make it safely into the world. Sadly for us this was not to be the case – after a 32 hour labour on Monday 21^st May 2018 our sweet baby boy Samuel was stillborn. He was tiny but utterly perfect and when we held him in our arms we had never felt more whole or more broken.

I have felt so helpless over the last few months learning to
navigate this new life where we carry our son in our hearts and not in our arms - all the while bracing ourselves for more IVF treatment. I wanted so badly to do something in memory of our little Samuel.

I decided that we would raise some money for Shrewsbury and
Telford Hospital Charity. The midwife team at The Princess Royal Hospital looked after us so well and supported our family through the unthinkable. I cannot thank them enough for the compassion and care they showed our family. If you can - please donate to help fund new equipment, patient comforts, staff education and research. 

Cressida, Carl and our star Samuel xx