Ian ran the 2021 London Marathon for the M.A with his own ballot place
Ian applied for a ballot entry for the 2020 London Marathon and was delighted to learn that he had obtained his own place. After the cancellation of the 2020 race, he was finally able to run in this iconic event in October 2021, and chose to support the Miscarriage Association by fund raising across his network of friends, family, and colleagues. He also obtained matched fundraising from his employer, Lloyd’s Insurance, and also applied successfully for additional funding from the Lloyd’s Charities Trust!
We had great guidance from our consultant and hospital staff, as well as love and support for each other and from our families, but not all couples are as fortunate. Raising money and awareness for the Miscarriage Association enables this wonderful charity to provide such support, and offers important information to those who experience the sadness of miscarriage.
Ian told us:
Last year I trained for a London Marathon that got changed twice due to the pandemic, however I finally completed the virtual London Marathon on 4th Oct 2020 in dark, wet, lonesome, and windy conditions in 4 hours 20 minutes. I kept going with my training and fund-raising objectives, and I’m delighted to say that I finally got to complete my first ever London Marathon in October 2021. I loved every second of it and completed the marathon course in 4 hours 14 minutes.
During 2013/14, my wife Amanda and I sadly experienced 3 heart-breaking recurrent miscarriages. The first was an experience we will never forget. Going into the first important scan at 12 weeks, we couldn’t wait to see our little heartbeat on the screen, full of excitement and smiles. To then not see that recognisable image, and only that of concern on the face of the sonographer, was heart-breaking. We had been told that we experienced a ‘missed miscarriage’. The feeling of disbelief, shock and numbness was overwhelming, and one we still remember to this day. Obviously, we wanted some answers, but there weren’t any. We just had to mentally, and for Amanda physically, recover, and see what the future brings.
We soon had some good news and were pregnant again. Due to miscarrying previously, and Amanda’s age, we were monitored by the Early Pregnancy Unit at our local hospital. Unfortunately, 14 weeks into the pregnancy we suffered our 2nd tragic miscarriage. After a time of recovering and acceptance of the situation, and being referred to our brilliant hospital consultant, we found ourselves pregnant for a third time. With monitoring and observation by the experts, we felt positive about this pregnancy. How wrong was we to feel that… sadly, we had a 3rd miscarriage. As you can imagine Amanda and I were absolutely devastated after the 3rd, we felt like our whole world was full of grief which had fallen apart. With time running out for us, we was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to be blessed with a child to love and cherish.
Well, miracles can happen, ours arrived on Monday 22nd February 2016 at 10:09 in our beautiful healthy daughter Ava. She is our world, who we love and adore with every beat of our hearts, and who completes us as a family. We are so grateful and thankful that we were lucky.
We had great guidance from our consultant and hospital staff, as well as love and support for each other and from our families, but not all couples are as fortunate. Raising money and awareness for the Miscarriage Association enables this wonderful charity to provide such support, and offers important information to those who experience the sadness of miscarriage.
I ran and doing am charity work in memory for our 3 babies that we lost and never got to meet, and for our precious miracle rainbow baby Ava, who we are so blessed to have in our lives.
I now want to run a 3rd marathon and do it all again! My heart tells me that I need to run 3 marathons for the 3 babies we lost and raise more money to help people facing the journey we had.