I am attempting my black belt grading in kickboxing on Sunday 2nd March. The grading will last 5 hours and is a massive challenge for me at age 47 - it's been a long journey, working on my fitness, my strength and improving my technique.

I started kickboxing in 2018 in an attempt to try to get stronger after our baby Thomas was stillborn. I wanted to punch and kick and I needed to try to get fit again after giving birth to 5 babies! I also wanted to go somewhere where nobody knew me, so that I could be just me, instead of being seen as the person who'd had two babies die.

Kickboxing has been amazing for me and I would recommend it to anyone looking to improve their physical or mental health - Dragon Freestyle Kickboxing are a fabulous club and I have met so many fantastic people there! It's not particularly common for a woman in her 40s to suddenly take up this sport but I've always been made to feel really welcome and I'm now much less scared of sparring than I used to be!!!

Because the black belt grading is going to be such a huge challenge for me, I have decided to try to raise some money for Forever Stars, a local charity very close to my heart. They support bereaved parents in and around Nottingham and they funded the bereavement suites at QMC and City Hospital. These bereavement suites allow parents to spend valuable time with their baby or child after they have died and it made such a difference to us to have that time with Thomas (unfortunately, there were no bereavement suites when Ben died). I'd love to be able to give something back to the charity to help with all the amazing projects they are currently working on. Any sponsorship no matter how small will be much appreciated :)