“SO MANY PEOPLE JOINED IN”
Lauren (32) and James Frost (34) from Eastbourne, suffered terrible tragedy with the loss of their first child Leo, and decided to celebrate his short life as best they could. thehonestfamily.co.uk
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e tried for six years to have our first child and were so lucky for IVF to be successful the first time. All was plain sailing until I went into premature labour.
There was an emergency operation and a four-week hospital stay before our miracle boy was born at 24 weeks and four days in February 2018, but sadly he only lived for eight days.
During those eight days we did ever ything we could to soak up the time with him and reading was something we did a lot. After we made the decision to remove his life suppor t, we read him a book and cuddled him as he peacefully slipped away.
I vowed then to write a book in his honour to channel my grief and to raise awareness of baby loss and to celebrate him rather than shy away, as one in four pregnancies ends in loss. On what would have been Leo’s first bir thday we delivered cakes and cof fees to all the emergency services local to us as a thank you and that’s when #rak4leo star ted – random acts of kindness.
On what would have been Leo’s second bir thday we took to social media to encourage others to join in. We had another baby, Teddy, by this point and wanted to involve other parents. So many people joined in, and last year armed with a big wheel, a giant spreadsheet and Instagram we did RAK4LEO, which had over 1,400 [following] on live and went on for over three hours per night for two nights.
It focused on celebrating life and highlighting that when people lose someone it’s impor tant to speak their name – they still matter. We’re hopefully releasing my book and celebrating Leo’s bir thday again this year in the same way. I changed my life by channelling my grief, building a suppor t network and teaching others how to make a difference when someone you love has lost a child, because it doesn’t come naturally.