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My Plea:

Christian Boyle

Hi everyone. My name is Christian Boyle and I am a volunteer Trustee for the charity Sophia Pregnancy Loss Support.

Firstly I wanted to say I am so overwhelmed to be nominated for this award. Thank you for taking the time to read my profile and watch my video.

Our baby girl Evie was born sleeping at 26 weeks in 2016. From the moment we heard those awful words – “I’m really sorry but there’s no heartbeat” our whole world was thrown upside down. Evie weighed just under 1lb and was so tiny but perfect.

In the following months we joined a local support group – Sophia Pregnancy Loss Support. They were a new group. We became heavily involved with the group and started to help out by volunteering and fundraising.
This has included organising mud runs, band nights and fun days all in Evie’s memory. Through the funds raised I helped the group to become a registered charity in January 2017 and became a trustee soon after.
I have tried to help raise awareness of pregnancy loss and how it can affect dads. I attend awareness events in the local community – things like business expos, carnivals and fun days where I can talk to dads who may need support. I also attend the monthly support group for Sophia PLS where I can talk from a dad’s perspective and encourage men to come along. I am an admin on the dad’s Facebook group for Sophia PLS. This is a closed group where bereaved dads can talk confidentially.

This year I decided to take on a huge challenge; I ran the London Marathon to raise money for Sophia PLS. This involved hours of training as I am no athlete!! I decided to run each mile of the marathon in memory of a different angel baby with the last mile being for our Evie. I wanted to do this to honour of all the amazing, strong parents we have met on our baby loss journey. All of the parents and their families got behind me and I printed all of the baby’s names on my running top. It was lovely to share photos of me taking the angels round London together.

This has raised so much awareness. I was in the local press and Kym Marsh even sponsored a mile for her baby and shared my story on Twitter. My story was shared on social media and I had lots of people during the race talking to me about the babies and our story.

I was so proud to raise £4500 from running the 2018 London Marathon.

I’ve included a couple of quotes from members of the Sophia Group and my wife who nominated me for this award below.

I’ve also included a video of my journey that my wife made for me which you can watch below:

“I am so proud of everything that Chris has achieved in memory of our daughter. He has helped to raise awareness of pregnancy loss in our community and has shown that it is ok for dads to talk openly about their experience. Most importantly he has been my rock even while dealing with his own grief. . We have recently been very fortunate to have our beautiful baby boy. He has supported me through this difficult journey together and is a brilliant daddy to him while still helping to keep Evie’s memory alive and I cannot put into words how amazing he has been and how proud I am of him.”

“Words cannot describe how incredibly proud I am of you Chris. From when you decided to run the marathon for Sophia PLS to this point you have achieved so much both physically and mentally. To run each mile in memory of different angel babies, knowing that a different baby will pull you through each mile – words cannot describe just how thoughtful and caring you actually are.”

What others have said:

“My husband Chris was there every step of the way to support me. Even though he was dealing with his own grief he was my rock. He must have been terrified too but he was truly there for me in every way. Evie weighed just under 1lb and was so tiny but perfect. I had so many mixed emotions after the birth and didn’t know if I even wanted to hold my baby. It was Chris who encouraged me to do this. In the following months we joined a local support group Sophia Pregnancy Loss Support. Chris has achieved so much for the charity, fundraising, became a trustee, helped to raise awareness of pregnancy loss and how it can affect dads. He ran the London Marathon to raise money for Sophia PLS, raising £4000.”

https://youtu.be/BWZbujsBr8Y