Bereaved father takes on mega charity challenge in memory of his stillborn daughter

Edinburgh to Manchester charity walk

On July 15th, 2023, Ben will push limits when he takes on his biggest Extreme Challenge yet when he will walk from the Scottish capital of Edinburgh to the Tommy’s Rainbow Clinic and Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Manchester.

You can support Ben in this monumental effort by clicking here. 

Along with his support team, Ben will start from Edinburgh Castle and will walk the 206 miles nonstop and with no sleep day and night to Manchester in a time of 68 hours or less.

Manchester research saving lives

Ben has set himself a target of £10,000 with all funds going direct to Professor Heazell and his team to support research to help save babies’ lives.

In October 2018 Ben’s daughter Kallipateira was stillborn at 38 weeks of pregnancy in Calderdale and the couple then experienced a miscarriage in May 2019 at 9 weeks of pregnancy. Kallipateira’s death was fully preventable.

Ben and Gaynor launched their charity to help save babies’ lives through research and support other parents who have experienced the death of a baby.

St Mary’s Hospital Manchester

Following the stillbirth of their daughter and miscarriage, they knew if they wanted to have the best chance of another child with a better outcome, they must be cared for by Professor Alexander Heazell of Tommy’s rainbow clinic and Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre in Manchester.

On May 23rd, 2020, Ben and his partner Gaynor Thompson gave birth to their Rainbow baby boy Apollon in Manchester.

Apollon survived due to the love and specialist care of Professor Heazell and his team.

The full pregnancy was kept a secret from family and friends.

The Kallipateria Moorhouse Foundation

To help save babies’ lives nationally in the UK Professor Heazell and his team are now the main beneficiary of The Kallipateira Moorhouse Foundation.

Ben says: “Every day in the UK there are on average eight babies stillborn and many of these deaths could have been prevented. These are beautiful fully developed babies who should be alive.

“As a grieving dad who each day feels the pain of Kallipateira’s devastating death, I must now push limits even further and raise more vital funds for Professor Heazell and his team to support research so that other families nationally don’t have to experience the pain that we do every day.

“The biggest challenge I face is not the walk but raising the money because baby death is what I call the world’s biggest phobia – when most people hear about it, they will cross the street, turn the page or change the channel over.

“I am prepared to put myself through the mill again with July’s Extreme Challenge for everyone’s families, but I do need everyone’s support to help reach my target.

“It would have been easy to do this over a week with a full night’s sleep every night. A challenge is not a challenge unless it’s challenging.

“I would like to ask the media and public to please support me in my quest to raise as much as possible to help save babies’ lives nationally and speak about the subject of stillbirth by sharing my story.”

Tommy’s Stillbirth Research Centre

Professor Alexander Heazell, Director of Tommy’s Stillbirth Research Centre said. “Last year it was my privilege to walk with Ben for the last 21 miles of his amazing long-distance walk from London to Tommy’s Manchester Stillbirth Research Centre.

“His achievement was amazing, and we are so grateful to the Kallipateira Moorhouse Foundation for their ongoing support in our research, their funding has enabled us to investigate partner’s needs in pregnancy after loss and to develop specialist information for women who don’t use English as their first language.

“I am looking forward to walking with Ben on this Bigger and Braver walk, he deserves so much support for his effort in memory of his daughter.”

You can find out more about the KM Foundation on their social media here:

Facebook, Instagram, or their website here.