On 21st April, I will be lacing up my trainers and running the London Marathon to raise money for Petals, a baby loss counselling charity.

In June last year, Clare was admitted to hospital during what had been a progressively difficult pregnancy. Tests showed that both Clare and our baby were very sick. We were told that to continue with the pregnancy would put Clare at great risk and the likelihood of the baby reaching full term was low. The sad decision was made to terminate the pregnancy for medical reasons at 18 weeks (almost half way through a typical pregnancy term).

We were introduced to Petals and our amazing counsellor, Russ, who over the following months helped us to process and talk about the trauma of what went wrong, our time in hospital and all of the emotions we felt (and still feel). The support we received from Petals was invaluable.

The demand for Petals’ counselling service has never been so high: each month their specially trained counsellors deliver over 500 sessions and in 2023 alone, they accepted referrals from 1,464 bereaved parents. However, during that time, they were also forced to turn away more than 700 people who came to them for support due to a simple lack of funding.

Every £80 raised for Petals will provide a counselling session and every £500 raised funds a full package of support for a bereaved family.

You can read more about this amazing charity and their work here:

https://www.petalscharity.org/

I would hugely appreciate any contribution you can spare to enable Petals to continue their work.

Thank you.

Love, Si x