Helen Valentine, a Clinical Scientist at our Trust has swam the length of the Channel in aid of a miscarriage charity.

Helen challenged herself to swim 10 miles in July and exceeded this target by swimming an amazing 21 miles, over 1300 lengths of her local swimming pool.  

In doing so, she raised £950 for The Miscarriage Association, a charity close to Helen’s heart as she had three consecutive miscarriages in 2023.

Helen suffered both physically and mentally for some time after her miscarriages including having feelings of guilt and inadequacy.

This is when Helen found The Miscarriage Association and began reading stories on their website from women who’d had similar experiences.

Helen said:

I felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone about how I was feeling and this left me feeling alone. Reading stories from other women who had been through the same experience as me was comforting.

Around one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage according to The Miscarriage Association and according to the NHS there are a number of causes. The support from the charity left Helen wanting to give something back to them.

Helen said:

I wanted to challenge myself physically and encourage people to talk more openly about their experience and to raise awareness around miscarriage.

The challenge was fine in the beginning and I managed to reach the 10 mile target halfway through the month. With so much encouragement from friends, family and colleagues, I continued and managed to reach 21 miles by the end of the month. I proved to myself if you put your mind to something, you can do it.

Helen and her husband have since had a daughter, a younger sister to their four year old son.

Prior to the birth of her daughter, Helen shared her story which you can read on The Miscarriage Association website.