Ride For 17

Hello one and all,

I'm just here to briefly make you aware of a charity ride that a friend of mine is aiming to do in June. It's for a very worthy cause and at this stage they're looking for all the help they can whether it be donations (no matter how big or small) or even sponsors (they currently don't have suitable bikes for the journey!).

A few words from George…

"On the 17th January 2010 my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl called Tilly Rose. Sadly, due to complications in the last few days of pregnancy, Tilly had already passed away. Fortunately a charity called Sands (the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity) was on hand at the hospital to provide specialist care and support for my sister and our family during this awful time, along with a private room away from all the joys of the maternity ward.

As a way of thanking Sands for their support my family has worked tirelessly over the last year to raise money for them through family fun days, charity auctions and a number of sponsored runs such as the London 10k and Great South Run. In all we have raised almost £7,500. However, for my brother and me, our biggest challenge is yet to come…

On average ten babies are stillborn (die after the 24th week of pregnancy) and seven babies die neonatally (die within the first four weeks of life) every day in the UK. This is why we have focused on the number 17 and called our challenge ‘Ride for 17’. We will start in London on the 17th June 2011 exactly 17 months after Tilly Rose passed away and aim to cycle 1700km across Europe, through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany & Czech Republic. We have set ourselves a huge target of raising £17,000 for Sands through sponsorship, and would love your kind support.
We still don’t have suitable bikes for the event and are looking to any companies to help contribute, as the entire event is self-funded and we want as much money as possible to go directly to Sands.

If you would like to find out more about Sands please visit www.uk-sands.org or www.justgiving.com/ridefor17 for our charity page.

You can also follow our progress on www.facebook.com/ride17,
Twitter @Ride_For_17 and our new website www.ride17.com, which will have weekly updates, photos, a map to show you exactly where we plan to go."

Thanks for your time peeps, and although they're not Tesco - every little helps!

A very worthy cause there Rob and a mammoth task ahead for those involved. Cannot imagine what that must be like to go through. Utterly horrific.
Will support for sure.

This happened to close friends of mine just before Christmas. As a parent myself, I was so shocked and saddened, I was amazed that this sort of thing still happens with apparent frequency, you just don’t hear about it very much, and this is exactly why awareness need to be raised so that the funding and support is improved.

Often there is so little explanation as to why it happens, which can make dealing with it all the more difficult.

Best of luck with the event, donation on its way.

In 2006 my son unfortunately suffered a neonatal death. What they are doing is fantastic and I wish them all the best.

xxx

i will make a small donation robb. in memory of my niece, isobelle.

x

Many thanks for the donation Sam.
Was talking with George last night over a beer and he told me that it makes him even more determined to complete the task ahead when he knows that people are supporting them. Whenever a donation comes in or someone gives them something to help them along with the ride it just gives him a little boost.

shoots, sasmon & jonny - thanks guys.
It's really surprising just how common this harrowing situation is, seems like a lot of people I've talked to about it recently have been affected in one way or another.