Walking for angels - 4Louis

Today's post is a very special guest post.  Please take the time to read about this fantastic work, raising money to provide much needed support to bereaved parents of angel babies.

The charity was started to help parents of babies that are stillborn and raise funds to make the experience as painless as possible. 17 babies are stillborn everyday in the UK and very little is available to help these mothers rebuild their shattered lives. They are looking to raise money for Maternity and Neo Natal Units and to provide our 4Louis Keepsake boxes to as many hospitals as possible.

York District Hospital takes delivery of memory boxes - credit www.4louis.co.uk  

My name is Paul Taft and I am writing to you today to ask for support for our charity event in 2012.  I am affiliated with a charity in the North-East of England called 4Louis (Charity Registered Number 1137843). In December 2009 Kirsty McGurrell received the devastating news that her 1st baby who she had been carrying the last 9 months had died just before her due date. So she had to go through the ordeal of giving birth to Louis as a sleeping angel. After what she had to go through and the little support that was out there for her Kirsty took it upon herself to set up the charity 4Louis. Kirsty is my boss’s, Bob McGurrell daughter and after him telling me about Kirsty’s ordeal and what she was doing I decided to help raise money for her charity and set up Walk4Louis with my close friend Phil Barker. Phil and his wife Charlotte came on board as it was a subject close to their hearts after losing their niece Holly in October 2009. 

Our goal for Walk4Louis is to complete one long distance walk a year to help raise money for 4Louis. In 2011 we completed a walk from Sunderland Hospital to SANDS Memorial Garden at the National Memorial Arboretum nr Burton Upon Trent, a grand total of 191 mile. We did this across 6 days. The challenge took a lot of planning and preparation and in April 2010 with everything in place we were set on our way by Jordan Henderson (Liverpool FC) and David Meyler (Sunderland FC). 6 days later we arrived at our destination tired and a little worse for wear, but it was worth it and we had managed to raise £1000 between us. This years walk was a ‘Coast 2 Coast’ walk from Blackpool to Sunderland. We set off from Blackpool’s North Peir on the 20th May and 9 days and 164 miles later we had our feet in the North Sea at Roker, Sunderland. It was another great achievement after battling 70mph winds and driving rain as we crossed the Yorkshire Dales. We managed to raise £4500 with help for some celebrity backers who we managed to get to know through Twitter.

We are now in the process of planning our 2012 walk and are looking to take on ‘A Grand Challenge’ and walk the Grand Union Canal from London to Birmingham and finish at Drayton Manor Theme Park Tamworth walking along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal also including walking around a number of sports stadiums on the 1st day of the walk. We will be starting our walk on the 11th May 2012 and looking to finish on the following Saturday 19th May .We are looking for anyone who is willing to help with our planning and preparation for next years walk as we are looking to build up awareness across the UK as well as sponsorship. 

Also anyone is welcome to come and join us and participate on any of the days of the walk. So if you would like to help or are thinking of participating you can come and show your support by joining us on Twitter @walk4louis or on Facebook walkforlouis. So please come and join us and help raise awareness for this great charity that tackles a very little talked about subject.

If you want to know more about Kirsty and her fantastic charity please visit http://www.4louis.co.uk . We look forward to hearing from you soon so please come and say hi. You can buy a 4louis awareness band and 4louis enamel badge to show your support. The bands and badges cost £2. You can buy them via the website http://www.4louis.co.uk, and pay for them via paypal.