Grateful for support (Marie Manson)

Allison Hutchison and myself would like to take this opportunity to thank the community in Shetland, especially Whalsay, for their generous donations towards our recent 17-mile sponsored walk.

We did the walk in aid of Sands (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity) on Saturday in Whalsay, in memory of our boys, Ross and Kieran, and all babies who are born sleeping. We got prefect weather for the walk and completed it in five hours and 10 minutes.

June is the awareness month for Sands and the theme this year was to run in conjunction with the “Why 17” campaign, as 17 babies die every day in the UK from either stillbirth or neonatal death and this statistic is repeated every single day across the country.

That is why we chose to walk 17 miles and aimed to raise £1,700 for the charity. But we exceeded our target and the total received so far is £5,052.97, excluding gift aid.

Sands has a nationwide group of local networks run by bereaved parents to support anyone affected by the loss of a baby. Our local group Aberdeen Sands is part of this network and 100 per cent of the donations we received will be used to support their work.

Special thanks to everyone who walked with us, especially Lisa Williamson and Yvonne Anderson, to everyone who came to the Oot Ower Lounge to help us celebrate finishing, those who cheered us on along the way, Iris and Dianne at Tetley and Anderson for the water and sweeties and Alistair at JWJ Whalsay for the wine at the finish line.

We are grateful to Rhona Tait for driving the car with the water and the sweeties for us, to Maggie and Ian Anderson at the Oot Ower Lounge celebration afterwards and everyone who donated helping us raise so much money for a charity which works tirelessly to support and care for anyone who have unfortunately been through this tragedy.

On behalf of us both thank you so much.

Marie Manson
Vatnagarth,
Vevoe,
Whalsay.