Walking in memory of Florence Grace - ‘Born our angel’
Tommy's guest blog by Carina, 14/09/2018
The pain endured when losing a child is indescribable. We are overwhelmed at the love and support we have received and the amount of people that have been affected by Florence's tragic story. Our lives and hearts will forever have a missing piece.
I always believed in finding my ‘soul mate’ – the one who makes you feel safe, feel complete and helps you become a better version of yourself. One day, my soul mate came into my life and Mark and I became best friends, fell in love and never looked back.
Our dreams came true in August 2017 when we found out we were blessed with our first baby – a baby made with love. I knew my Daddy in heaven made my wishes comes true.
I didn’t have an easy pregnancy, suffering with awful sickness but I didn’t mind as I knew it would all be worth it. From 33 weeks, my community Midwife reported growth issues and I continued to have checks from the hospital who were not overly concerned as I was deemed low risk and healthy. From 37 weeks it appeared growth had tailed off but again the hospital were not concerned.
On the 25th April 2018, at 41 weeks and 5 days, I was admitted to hospital to begin the induction process and 13 hours later the unimaginable happened. My world came crashing down when in the early hours of the 26th April 2018. At 41 weeks and 6 days, the hospital staff told me my beautiful Florence has passed away in between routine 3 hourly monitoring, following a period of noted decelerations in the monitor readings. At 17.47pm I naturally delivered my beautiful Florence who was ‘born our angel and was absolutely perfect.
The hospital investigation is on-going, but it transpires that even though my baby girl was perfect, I contracted a condition called ‘delayed chorionic villous maturation’ which I have been advised is undetectable and only occurs from 37 weeks.
Life has never been the same since... and never will be. Our lives will forever have a missing piece and we will carry Florence within our hearts forever.
The support and love we have received has been overwhelming and we wanted to turn a tragedy into a positive by helping future Mummies and their families have their dreams come true.
I started researching my condition and came across Tommy’s charity. The staff at Tommy’s have been so genuine and kind to me and I thought if I can just help one mum, help one baby survive then it would be amazing. Florence in our hearts and minds and we cry for her every day, but we just want to try and do something positive for everyone else.
I decided to organise a walk in memory of Florence, walking the route I used to do when I was pregnant with Florence. So many other people came forward and shared stories of loss with me, and I wanted to do something for them as well and to provide an opportunity for everyone to come together to support one another.
On the 9th September 18, history was made - family, friends, communities and angel Mummies and Daddies came together to walk in loving memory of beautiful Florence. People stood side by side across all corners of the world and walked for Florence in Ramsgate (Kent), Lincolnshire, Madeira, Dubai and Australia. We came together to celebrate Florence’s life and also the life of those precious angels no longer with us. Smiles and tears were shared and together we stood strong for our angel babies and to support one another.
On the day of the event I wore a rainbow skirt as a symbol of hope – as after the storm comes a rainbow. Mark and I are trying for our rainbow baby and Tommy’s have offered us so much support in the hope that we will be blessed with our rainbow baby. Tommy’s has a rainbow clinic and they’ve offered to support us with our next pregnancy every step of the way.
Final figures raised will be confirmed shortly once all donations are received, but currently we are estimating that overall we have raised between a staggering £5-£6k for Tommy’s charity!! This will fund awareness and essential research into causes and prevention of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth. We hope our donations will help prevent this heartache for future mothers and families.
Any final donations can be added via our just giving link.
Thank you to everyone for your love, support and kindness. We are so overwhelmed for all you have done and we are sorry we cannot thank you all individually ... from the bottom of our hearts we are truly grateful to you all.
I am so proud that my beautiful baby Florence has touched so many hearts and left such a special legacy. Florence Grace will live on within all our hearts forever - fly high princess.