There isn’t a strong enough adjective to describe how utterly devasting it must be to lose a baby. Sadly one in 200 births are stillbirth and 1000’s more are miscarried. The quality of care a women and her family recieves at this time has a lasting effect on all involved and it can be felt for years, if not a lifetime later. Unfortunately many midwives and health professionals do not recieve a high standard of bereavement care so women and their families can be left in the midst of grief with absolutely no-one around them qualified to provide the care and support they need.

I am running the Richmond half marathon (which is 13.1 miles - not the 13 miles I thought it was) in the hope of raising money for the charity Beyond Bea. https://www.beyondbea.co.uk/

Set up by my friend Steph in memory of her daughter Beatrice Grace, Beyond Bea aims to educate health professionals in bereavement care and provide workshops and training to ensure that those who experience baby loss are supported with the highest possible standard of care. Steph is actually a midwife qualified in bereavement care herself, and since the charity’s creation in January 2018 has provided workshops and training for midwives and student midwives across the country. I want to raise money to ensure that Beyond Bea has the materials and resources they need to continue to educate health professionals and raise the standards of bereavement care in babyloss.

Please please give as generously as you can. If it makes you feel better about donating I can guarantee that I will hate every single 13.1 miles I am about to run - and that’s just on race day! If I’d have known I’d have had to train I’d have picked a 5K...