I ran the London Marathon for Tommys Baby Charity in 2021 and loved it! I wanted to share why running for Team Tommys might be something you’d like to do too💜
What is Tommy’s?
Tommys baby charity is the biggest baby loss charity in the UK. It was started in St Thomas’ hospital in London. They lead research into prematurity,miscarriage and stillbirth. They have amazing clinics in Manchester, London and Edinburgh. They help so many people with their vital research and also provide information for women with lower risk pregnancies.
Why did I run for Team Tommy’s?
I applied to run for Tommy’s when I was in my second year of my Midwifery degree. I saw the desperate need for more research into baby loss and wanted to develop my newfound hobby of running
Applying and the requirements
So now I’d figured out I wanted to run for them I had to apply. Tommys have an application process on their website and I wrote about why I wanted to run for them. Tommys have a few fundraising places for races and the required fundraising amount for London Marathon was £2000 (pretty much the standard fundraising amount for charities for this race). They emailed to offer me a place and off to fundraising I went
Raising £2000
I’ll go into my top tips for fundraising in a later blog but I’ll stick with my Tommys specific fundraising here. I did your typical asking of people and bake sales. I found supermarket fundraising was one of my favourite experiences of the process. People were able to talk to me about their experiences with baby loss which was very moving and cemented my love of Tommys. I got in touch with baby loss parents to offer a star with their babies name to be attached to my running jersey so they could run London Marathon with me which was lovely. Many other Tommys runners did memory miles. Tommys was amazing with offering advice and equipment for fundraising ,e.g. banners, shirts and fundraising pots. I ended up raising £2570 for Tommys and I’m so proud of what that money will do
Running the Marathon
Now came to running London Marathon and if you want to hear more about that I’ve got a race recap on this blog. I knew I was going to see Tommys cheer stands at mile 13/14 and mile 21/22. These cheer stands were amazing and full of people with pom poms and cheering. There was even a photographer(see picture above). Just running round the course and people seeing my jersey and cheering ‘Go Team Tommys’ was such an energiser. There would normally be a meet up before and after the race in non-COVID times. I got to see quite a few other Tommys runners round the course.
Why should you run for Team Tommys
💜They are an amazing charity supporting vital work that changes lives
💜You don’t have to run a marathon in London. They offer many races to fundraise for all over the country
💜There’s no feeling like it!
Iona the Midwife runs 