Over the years more than a million people have completed the 26.2 mile London Marathon. What's even more impressive is that participants have raised over a billion pounds for charity AND this year I get to be one of them. That's basically $1.27 billion dollars for my American friends ;-) 

It's been just over 5 years since I ran a full marathon - I've chosen to run for Tommy’s and have committed to fundraise £2,000. 

I first learned about Tommy’s when my cousin ran the Great North Half Marathon as part of their team. Fun fact you probably already know… I was born in England and didn’t move to the US until 1983. Tommy’s is the largest pregnancy and baby loss charity in the UK and funds vital research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth, to help keep saving babies’ lives – in short you’re helping save babies' lives.

Here’s the personal part most of you don’t know….and why I chose Tommy’s. I’ll leave out most of the details and if you want to skip reading this part and just donate you can use the link 💕☺️

From 2013-2016 Chris and I tried many ways to start a family and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2016 which ended our journey to being parents.

I had a miscarriage in April 2013 (believe it or not I went in for my DNC the day of the Boston Marathon bombings).
After our miscarriage I was told that things like this “just happen” and unfortunately, even after going through a year of fertility treatment, several IUI's and ultimately IVF treatment it wasn’t in the cards for us. And, other than been given the option of spending an obscene amount of money for another round of IVF we weren’t really given any explanation of why it didn’t help us the first time.

So, here’s some of the ways Tommy’s is helping that mean a lot to me:

-They fund research to identify why pregnancy goes wrong, which helps to understand how to prevent complications and loss, as well as enabling specialist care for people at their clinics.
-They provide expert, midwife-led advice for parents before, during and after pregnancy.

 
Thanks for reading and thank you for your support 💕 🙏🏻