Hi,

My husband and I had a son, Rowan, stillborn at 31 weeks last year. We had excellent care at the John Radcliffe hospital, Oxford.

We were also very grateful to be supported by Petals who gave us 5 counselling sessions with an experienced professional matched to us.

My husband Luke was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease last year and wants to walk the length of Hadrian's Wall to raise money and awareness. I am going to walk the 84 miles with him over 8 days in June and would like anyone who feels moved or wants to support me to donate to Petals.

Petals is a baby loss counselling charity. Since the launch of the counselling service in Cambridge in 2013, over 7,100 people have benefitted from their specialist support and they are now delivering 500 counselling sessions every month.

The specialist counselling service that they provide is life-changing for parents who have suffered the devastating loss of a pregnancy or death of a baby. These tragic experiences can not only result in grief but also in trauma. Their wonderful counsellors are there to help parents navigate their grief and trauma and to guide them to a place of hope.

Specialist psychological care related to pregnancy loss is not available on the NHS even though stillbirth & neonatal death affects 12,400 parents each year and represents 2% of pregnancies. Miscarriage is said to occur in 25% of all pregnancies.

Petals provided over 5,500 individual counselling sessions in 2023

Raising £80 will enable Petals to fund one counselling session

£1,200 will fund one new Petals approved counsellor

Supporting my Hadrian's Wall Walk you will be helping Petals to deliver more vital counselling sessions to bereaved parents when they are needed. Not every area of the UK is covered by them at the moment. Thank you for reading this, Kate x

Please have a read of Luke's fundraising page for Motor Neurone Disease research:

https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/lukes-hadrians-wall-challenge