Gemma's running a marathon!

In October it will be 10 years since we lost our beautiful daughter and sister Gracie to stillbirth. As a way to honour her memory I'm going to run my first ever marathon.

Running a marathon has always been on my bucket list, and I'm not getting any younger, so I've decided its now or never!

At the same time, I'm hoping to raise a little money for Sands New Zealand. Sands provide support for families who experience pregnancy, baby and infant loss and also promote research into stillbirth, and newborn death.

Any pregnancy loss is devastating, regardless of gestation. Stillbirth is defined as pregnancy loss at 20 weeks or later and affects approximately 400 New Zealand families every year. Approximately 1 in 400 families will lose their babies after 28 weeks gestation.

Furthermore, up to 30% of stillbirths remain unexplained. After fertility struggles, the joy of successful IVF and then a completely healthy 39 week pregnancy, one of the hardest things to comprehend in losing Gracie was that there seemed to be no reason for why she slipped away.

So, in her memory I would like to raise some money to go towards research into the causes of stillbirth. Hopefully this research will one day help significantly reduce the number of families who experience this kind of loss.

If you can spare a few dollars for this cause and to help motivate me to drag myself around that 42.2ks, then I would be so very grateful. Thank you! Wish me luck!