In June I gave birth to my daughter Evie, however unlike most new borns she never took a breath or opened her eyes, she was still born. The heartbreaking news of being told your baby's heart had stopped beating is a moment in time I will never forget. In that moment my life changed completely, I stopped living and began surviving.

Evie was 36 weeks, just 4 weeks away from our due date, the nursery was ready and bags were packed. To get so close, caring for her, recognising Tim's voice, the kick i got every morning when I woke and the plans we had already made for our future as a family, all came shattering down around us in a matter of seconds. It was impossible to believe that this could happen to us when we were just weeks away from welcoming her in to the world. And yet it does happen all the time and in most cases the cause is unknown.

After she was born we had a choice, to let the grief consume us or to move forward. So next week we are going to climb Kilimanjaro. The climb will be tough and we will carry her with us all the way before letting her go and coming down to face our new reality head on with pride and determination, to not let this define us.

It has been an impossible decision to make as to whether to share our story or not however after reading some statistics I realised it would be selfish of me not to raise awareness of something that effects so many people. There are over 3500 still born babies a year in the UK, that is more than cot death and down syndrome and yet it is an issue that is hidden. Perhaps the thought of it's too painful, but we have to face it and we have to do something about it. So I ask you to donate a little towards the charities, SANDS, Tommy's and Aching Arms who help fund research and support families. We will share the funds we raise between them.

Perhaps this will give hope to others, that there can be some light in the darkest of places, that we can all do something to make things a little better.