Name: Sally Thompson

Organisation:

Award Category: Awareness Advocate

Sponsored By:

Voting Is Now Closed

My Plea:

My name is Sally Thompson, and I am nominated for the Awareness Advocate award, at the 2019 Butterfly Awards. My nomination described the things I do to raise awareness, however the reason I am even nominated at all would be because we have sadly suffered the loss of our baby.

From 2014 through to the present, myself and my husband Paul have experienced a number of pregnancy losses, ranging from early miscarriage to a second trimester loss, including a missed miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy. I read somewhere that less than 1% suffer recurrent miscarriage, less than 1% suffer a missed miscarriage, and less than 1% suffer an ectopic pregnancy – we suffered all three. Our journey has been incredibly unlucky, and investigations have not revealed any real cause. I began to develop severe anxiety and agoraphobia, and most aspects of my life began to suffer,

I really began to appreciate that pregnancy loss is an incredibly lonely, isolating experience, which I could not appreciate until experiencing it myself. Not having the understanding that comes with experience, others thought it appropriate to say things like “well, it wasn’t really a baby”, or “at least you know you can get pregnant”, and “you can always try again”. They left us heartbroken and hurt. Over time, this turned into determination – to educate people, and to show the reality of what it is like to lose your baby at any stage.

I looked for opportunities I could take to make some sort of difference. I started out with doing media opportunities for the Miscarriage Association, and have ended up doing fundraising for national charities such as Aching Arms, of which I organised the events myself. In between, I also try to use the power of social media to spread positive messages and information to those who may not otherwise understand what it is like, and just as importantly, those who want to understand but simply don’t know what to say. I have been directly contacted by many people – some who have gone through similar experiences, and some who had not and found my words helpful – who tell me what a difference my words have made to them, and as my friend Danielle told me, made her feel “so comforted, and not alone”. I am proud of this most of all.

I am thrilled to say I have personally contributed to raising over £3,500 for various charities through fundraising and telling my story of pregnancy loss. Bringing awareness to people and raising funds for such important work has been cathartic for myself, and my mental health has never been better, but to know I have made even the smallest difference to somebody on their own journey means a great deal to me. It has been a difficult road to go down, but the experience has sparked a real passion to make a difference, to turn my pain into purpose, which I intend to continue for a long time to come. Thank you for reading, and please consider voting for me for the Butterfly Awards – it would be an honour and a privilege.

What Others Have Said

Sally is passionate about raising awareness for miscarriage and pregnancy loss. She is a current media volunteer for the Miscarriage Association, she completed a Forget Me Not tea party in March raising over £1,100 in total. Sally regularly posts about different aspects of baby loss to her facebook and instagram page, covering the likes of Baby Loss Awareness Month, the #captureyourgrief project (which she has done for 3 years on the run), and many other things in between. I am also aware that she has recently began an anonymous instagram page called @soihadamiscarriage, encouraging mums and dads to share their stories and break the taboo. Sally truly is passionate about raising awareness and she has done so much already

https://youtu.be/Fo13iLqBAv8