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On 9th February 2020 at Langar Airfield Justin is going to complete a sky dive along with 2 friends and both our Dads. It will be a tandem skydive from 13,000 feet. The charity we are raising funds for is Leicester Hospitals Charity. Please see below for more information about our story and the reason behind the fundraising.

Our second son Jesse George was delivered on 21st May 2019 via Caesarean section at 37 weeks and 4 days gestation. Two days before this we reported to the Maternity Assessment Unit as Georgie hadn’t felt him move much. The doctor informed us that his heart had stopped beating - Jesse had died. Our world was then turned upside down, we had to inform our son and families that our baby had died.

After Jesse was delivered we were able to stay in one of the rooms part of the bereavement suite at Leicester General Hospital. Jesse was placed in a cool cot, designed for stillborn babies to enable families to spend time together after birth. The visiting rules were more relaxed and our son, both sets of parents and Georgie’s sister and brother in law were able to visit and meet Jesse. 

There were so many thoughtful touches provided by the hospital, midwives and charities:

• Sands provided us with a memory box to keep Jesse’s things in. It also contained 2 matching teddies. Jesse kept one with him, we have the other one. My son and I took the teddy home one evening and took turns in sleeping with it. Georgie also kept it close by in the hospital. Before we said goodbye to Jesse, we swapped teddies, leaving ours with him. We keep his teddy in our memory box.
• The room we were able to stay in was called the Garden Room and is based on the Delivery Suite. It is thoughtfully placed away from other new parents and their babies. It was a sanctuary where we could spend time with Jesse, and both our families could come and meet him. It had doors out to a courtyard garden, a bathroom, tea/coffee making facilities, and a small room for the midwives to use to prepare for Jesse’s arrival.
• The hospital gave us a digital camera to use during our stay so we were able to make some memories which we know we will treasure forever. We were given the memory card to bring home.
• The midwives arranged a time so that we could bathe and change Jesse. We know that this will become a treasured memory for our older son.
• We were given a book, Guess How Much I Love You, we read this to Jesse on the Friday morning before we were discharged.

We have had to face some really tough decisions and situations, making choices that no expectant parents think about. Instead of announcing our baby’s birth, it was his death. Instead of planning a christening, we were choosing a coffin and music for a funeral. 

We had a chat and decided that we wanted to do something to raise money for Leicester Hospital’s Charity, in support of the Garden Room and the Baby Loss Appeal. We are able to donate the funds in Jesse’s memory and they will be used to support other parents/families in the same situation we were faced with.

Thank you to Stephen Baron, Ian Booth, George Delves and Joe Osborne for volunteering to skydive alongside Justin for Leicester Hospital’s Charity.

#JumpingforJesse

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