Rhiannon Eyre

First 5k Done 🏃‍♀️

Today I completed my first 5k towards my 50k September challenge for sands. 🥹💛

I finished in 37 minutes.  admittedly, a little slower than I would have liked! 😂 But honestly, I’m still really proud of myself. I’ve been out of the running game for a while, so getting back out there and completing my first 5k is something I’m genuinely happy about. One down, nine to go!

This challenge means a lot to me personally, and so much more than simply running 50k.

Earlier this year, I experienced pregnancy loss. Although I haven’t lost a baby in the way that many of the families this charity supports have, I did lose a pregnancy, and I know firsthand just how devastating it can be to lose a pregnancy and the future you had already started imagining. I would never want to compare my experience to anyone else’s, but there is a very real grief that comes with pregnancy loss, and sometimes it can be difficult to put that grief into words.

My heart genuinely goes out to every family who has experienced baby loss in any form. Whether that loss happened during pregnancy, at birth, or after bringing their baby home, no one should have to go through that kind of heartbreak.

I’m running 50k in honour of all those little lives that were loved, wanted and never forgotten, and for the parents and families left behind who have to find a way to keep going while carrying a grief that never truly leaves them.

I hope that by taking on this challenge, I can do even a tiny bit to raise awareness, support an incredible cause, and help other families feel a little less alone.

And then there’s you guys. 🥹💛

When I set my fundraising goal at £175, I honestly had no idea what kind of response I would get. To have already surpassed that goal is something I’m incredibly, incredibly grateful for.

I actually cried tears of joy when I got that notification earlier today. 🥹

Every single donation, no matter the amount, means so much to me. But it isn’t just the donations…thank you to everyone who has shared my fundraiser, sent me messages, checked in on me, cheered me on, encouraged me to get my trainers on, or simply followed along with this journey.

And a special little thank you to someone who decided to swap their usual gym session for a run today, just so they could be alongside me in spirit. 🥹 You know who you are. And honestly, that gesture meant more to me than you probably realise. It’s little things like that that remind me just how lucky I am to have such wonderful people in my corner. 💛

You’re all helping me turn something that came from one of the hardest experiences of my life into something positive, and I honestly couldn’t be more grateful.

So, here’s to the first 5k. 🥹

Not because it was my fastest run.
But because I got out there, put one foot in front of the other, and started.

It might not be about how fast I get there, it’s about why I’m doing it. 💛

And knowing that I’m doing it with all of your support behind me makes the next 45k feel a little less daunting.

5/50k complete. 💛
£175+ raised and counting. 🥹
45k to go. 🏃‍♀️

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for helping me do this. Your donations, messages, encouragement, check-ins and general support genuinely mean more than you know.

Here’s to the next 45k 💛 x

For my little baby bean

50k is a daunting distance. If you’d told me a few years ago that I would willingly choose to run that far, I probably would have laughed at you. But this isn’t really about the distance. It’s about the little person who gave me a reason to run it.

My little Bean.

When I found out I was pregnant, everything changed. There was suddenly this tiny little life that I loved more than I could possibly explain, and a future that I had already started imagining.

I remember seeing my baby on the screen and seeing that tiny little heart flickering away. It was one of those moments that feels almost impossible to put into words. There was my baby. There was a heartbeat. There was hope.

And then, there wasn’t.

One moment I was looking at that tiny flicker on a screen, and the next I was being told that there was no longer a heartbeat.

I don’t think there is really a way to prepare yourself for that kind of loss.

Pregnancy loss can be incredibly isolating. The world doesn’t stop when yours does. Everything around you continues moving, while you’re left trying to understand how something you had loved so deeply could suddenly be gone.

For me, one of the things that made an enormous difference was the care I received from the Early Pregnancy Unit.

They cared for me at some of the most frightening and heartbreaking moments of my life. They didn’t just treat what was happening physically; they gave me kindness, compassion and somewhere to turn when I felt completely lost.

I genuinely don’t think I would be in the stable place I am today without the care and support I received from them.

That is why this run means so much to me.

I’m running for my little bean.

I’m running for the babies who were loved deeply but didn’t get the chance to grow up.

I’m running for the parents who have had to leave hospitals without the future they thought they were going home to.

I’m running for the people who have experienced baby loss and perhaps felt like they had to grieve quietly while the rest of the world carried on around them.

And I’m running for the incredible people who care for families through those moments. The people in Early Pregnancy Units and baby loss services who sit beside people on some of the worst days of their lives and help them find their way through.

I can’t change what happened to bean. But I can carry bean with me.

And in September, I’m going to carry that little memory for 50 kilometres.

Every step will be for the little life that meant so much to me.

And hopefully, by raising money and awareness, I can help make sure that someone else going through this doesn’t feel quite so alone.

For my little bean, Always. 🤍