I am running the Cambridge Half Marathon for Petals, the baby loss counselling charity. They provide specialist counselling for women, men and couples who have suffered the devastating loss of a pregnancy or death of a baby.

This is my first in years, and has been really hard after such a time out and unfit. I've committed to raising £1500 for them after they've helped us so much in our own losses, and would be hugely grateful if anyone was able to spare some money to donate, as we are nearly there.

Sadly, as many of you know, my wife and I have lost two babies/pregnancies last year, which has been really tough and in many respects we are still (and will continue to be) recovering and relearning from.

Especially after the first, Isaac, in December, but also Lucas in June, the first few weeks were particularly difficult emotionally with so much grief to process whilst continuing with our lives.

We were lucky enough via our employers to access Petals, a baby loss grief counselling service, who have been immensely helpful and helped us heal so much. But due to funding and availability, many many parents won't be able to access services like Petals.

I'm raising money to help increase the number of people who can get life-changing help like we did, and to spread awareness about how common and unseen baby loss is. Please, spread the word!

It is a sad reality that in the UK, 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage, 1 in 200 babies will be stillborn every year, over 5000 pregnancies will be terminated for medical reasons each year, and 24 babies die shortly after birth every single week.

Petals delivers hundreds of counselling sessions every month. Each session costs Petals £80, I would like my sponsorship to fund as many sessions as possible, so many more parents can be supported. So every donation counts!

🌸£20 will contribute towards one counselling session for a bereaved family.

🌸£80 will fund one specialist counselling session for a bereaved family.

🌸£500 will fund a full counselling package for a bereaved family.