I am running the Belfast Marathon on the 2nd May this year to try and raise lots of money for the charity SANDS. SANDS stands for the Stillborn and Neonatal Death Society and it does really important work to help families who have suffered the loss of a baby.

Sadly my family has been affected by the issues that SANDS deals with as in October this year my two beautiful nieces, Chrissie and May were born too soon and so I will be running the marathon in their memory. The loss of the twins has been absolutely heartbreaking for Faye and Ali and both families and SANDS were there to offer support to help us through it so I'd love to be able to give something back.
 
With your help I hope to raise money for SANDS who give bereavement support, counselling and advice to the families affected,  give the families the chance to create memory boxes to remember their babies and campaign for the improvement of care and research within the medical profession. Sadly 17 babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth in the UK every day which can devastate whole families and so the work that SANDS does is really important.
 
The decision to do the marathon was a bit of an impulsive one which was quickly followed by panic! I am not a "jogger" and so training for and doing the marathon in May will be a real challenge and if any of you could support the cause by donating any sum you can it will definitely spur me on to cross/crawl over the finish line!

(any support in Belfast on the day would also be very welcome!!!)

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