Twenty-ninth of March 2009 a day that has been etched into our minds forever. This was the day that we discovered to our horror and disbelief that after a normal pregnancy our son Benjamin Michael Avery had died from an umbilical cord accident. Ben was born asleep at 3.10am on 31st March 2009 weighing 5lb 8oz exactly one week before his due date. We love him very dearly and although we did not get to share life with him outside the womb we have shared love with him over the last 9 months, today and forever more.

Ben was so beautiful, he shared his Mummy's lips and small ears and his Daddy's nose. He was tall (46cm) with long legs, and had big but delicate, soft hands and feet with long fingers and toes and a full head of dark brown hair. He looked so at peace and we cherished the hours that we spent as a family saying our goodbyes. He has changed forever who we are - we are his parents and always will be, but with his loss we have lost a part of our future and a piece of our hearts. He was more that we could have ever wished for and we are enormously proud to call him our Son.

Like any parent who loses a child we have journeyed through a spectrum of emotions from disbelief and despair to acceptance and positive thought. We decided early in the process that we should draw strength from any positives rather than focus on the many negatives and that we should share our grief as a family. We have found that it has helped us to talk openly about Ben and this has fuelled our desire to increase awareness of stillbirth. Having completed a memorial garden to Ben in our first few weeks at home, it was important to find a new way to channel our grief and raw emotion. We decided that the best way to honour Ben would be to raise the profile of stillbirth, the charity ‘Surrey Sands' and ultimately to help others in a similar situation to ours.

We hope to be joined in this challenge not only by family and friends but also by other parents who have lost a child during pregnancy, birth or the first few days of life. It is the shared support and understanding of fellow bereaved parents through the charity Sands that has enabled us to draw so many positives from our situation and empowered us to help other grieving parents.

Benjamin Michael Avery 31/03/09 - Our little angel - rest in peace.