A Legacy Milestone : Five 

Five thousand pounds has now been raised in Leo’s name.

Five thousand pounds.

This was our annual target to hit for Leo’s first birthday – in January. Next year.

We have only just started fundraising properly this month – with three races, the latest was yesterday. Our friend ran the Edinburgh 5km and raised just shy of £500. I’ve genuinely thought we were going to plateau – people have already been SO generous.

I have no idea what amount we could actually achieve this year! There is no amount that will ever be enough. I can’t put a price on what would level out the wrong of Leo’s death, so I won’t. Although I know we want to know that we have made a more than sizeable contribution to the cause that is babies dying. I’m fully aware the perfectionist in me will never feel satisfied and go we can stop now.

I will take our close friends advice and not worry ourselves crazy with potentially too high targets and just let the rest of the year happen organically and see what we end up creating. That’ll be some learning experience for me – to go with the flow! But each £500 milestone is amazing – to see it tick over… And to see how quickly it changes…

What I will say though, is fundraising is hard on the self confidence.

It keeps us going, we have to do something to help. We are blown away by people’s generosity. We often feel guilty by people’s repeated generosity. It is also quite difficult to put yourself out there with the fear that no one will turn up and no one will donate…that no one is listening or caring, and wishing we’d just.stop.talking.about.babies.dying.

But a The Wife always says be brave little Piglet. 

This is how we keep Leo’s name alive. How we create a true legacy. £5000 is so small in comparison to what is needed. But it does all add up. This is why I keep writing, being open and public, sharing. Without the full understanding of baby loss, the cause is sort of… Minimised?

It is because of babies dying that fundraising happens. It is those who love the babies who die who make fundraising happen. I have a twisted chicken and egg situation in my brain about this. But whilst babies still die, we must all keep doing whatever we can to stop babies dying – and to help those affected by babies dying.

We have thrown thought to what we could do next year. I think we will just take each year at a time, doing something – anything – to raise awareness and funds.

But right now I’ll smile and be so unbelievably proud of Leo and what he has created and know that we have done good for him, and all the other babies. It’s a sizeable amount of money, and we couldn’t have ever done it alone. Thank you to all who have donated, supported, ran, grown moustaches, and who will continue to support.

We have barely started – which is the amazing thing!