Growing up, I was always inquisitive about why, unlike most of my friends, I didn’t have any brothers or sisters. From an early age I questioned this with my Mum and Dad, and I’ve always been grateful for the fact that they didn’t shy away from the truth and explained their story before having me.

I learnt that they had experienced baby loss through 5 miscarriages, including an ectopic pregnancy, and always thought of those babies as the big siblings I never had, but still loved. It’s something that we all carry as a family, as a reminder of resilience and the fact that in our case everything worked out, when I came along in 1999, after 5 years of pain.

One thing that was always abundantly clear was that, without the Miscarriage Association, it’s pretty unlikely that I’d even be here. Through their support and research, my parents have always said they owe a great deal to the charity and the role that it played during that point in their lives.

Since then, as a family, we have donated time and effort to raise more than £30,000 over the course of my life. Mum served as Chair of the charity in the year I was born, Dad ran the London Marathon when I was 7, and in 2016 and 2022, we hosted two charity balls raising £10,000 and £15,000 respectively; something we all take a huge amount of pride in.

In 2026, to mark around 30 years from when this all started, I’ve set an ambitious goal of raising £25,000 for the MA. I know it won’t be easy and so in addition to the third (and probably final) ball that we’re hosting this summer, I’ll be taking on a series of challenges in the run up to June. I’ll be scaling the 3 tallest peaks in the UK in 24hrs, cycling over 200km from the MA’s HQ in Wakefield to Birmingham Women’s Hospital where I was born, organising a charity rugby match, and completing a 15k Tough Mudder.

Our ask is this: if you’d like be involved in any of these events and help fundraise then please shout, you’d be more than welcome. If you're not able to get involved, please do donate whatever you're happy and comfortable with; it’s a cliché, but all donations of any size really do make a huge difference when raising funds of this scale.

Thanks so much and please follow along for the journey, it’ll be a hell of a ride!

Aden, Dean and Romy Rawlings

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