On 27th July 2022, our beautiful son Stewie Turner Kotulecki was stillborn at 39 weeks, following what had appeared to be a perfectly healthy pregnancy. This was the most devastating outcome that we never could have even imagined, and one year on, his absence from our lives is still just as devastating.

However during this time we have received the most incredible and compassionate support from a number of charities and organisations who have helped us to move forwards in our healing and start to rebuild our lives.

So in honour of Stewie’s 1st birthday we wanted to give something back to them, and hopefully other families as these charities raise awareness of the realities of baby loss, whilst directly supporting affected families and working to try to reduce the number of babies who die before, during, or after birth.

Nobody deserves to go through the heartbreak of losing a child, and we hope that using our experience to raise awareness and funds might help more people to feel as supported as we have, and maybe even one day enable another family to take their baby home.

THE CHALLENGE: YORKSHIRE THREE PEAKS HIKE

In memory of Stewie and in honour of his 1st birthday, his wonderful dad Adam will be doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge on 2nd September 2023.

The Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge is 24-miles (38.6km) round trip route, and includes 1585m (5200ft) of ascent. The challenge is to take on the peaks of Pen-y-Ghent (694 metres), Whernside (736 metres) and Ingleborough (723 metres), and in under 12 hours. These hills form part of the Pennine range, and encircle the head of the valley of the River Ribble, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

THE CHARITY: TEDDY’S WISH

In June 2023 we were lucky to attend a completely transformational and healing weekend retreat for parents who have lost a baby due to SIDS, stillbirth or neonatal death. The retreat gave us time and space to build meaningful and lasting connections with other bereaved parents who understood our grief in a way that nobody else could, to move forwards in our healing, and to feel like our children are not alone.

Whilst we had received incredibly helpful bereavement counselling via Child Bereavement UK, we had never taken part in any group support sessions, perhaps because it felt like we would only ever be scratching the surface. But this retreat gave us time and space to truly get to know people who really could understand what we were going through - as much as anybody ever can.

In addition to providing care and support for families grieving the loss of a baby and funding vital research into the causes of SIDS, stillbirth and neonatal death, Teddy's Wish funds the entirety of these annual retreats, asking parents only to cover their travel costs. We would be honoured if Stewie's legacy could help progress this research and support other parents to experience the same incredible benefits from these retreats that we did.

THANK YOU

We are so appreciative of everybody’s support to keep Stewie’s memory alive, and to support the charities that have helped us so much in the last year - and whose impact will last much longer. Thank you so much.