Choosing Hope, a walk of honour and remembrance, in support of families who have experienced infant loss, will be held on October 12 starting at Long Jetty and finishing at The Entrance.
This is a grass roots event started on the Central Coast with a heart and a cause that truly matters.
Choosing Hope was initiated for the purpose of creating a space where bereaved families and their community could come together in support with others who understand, recognise their experience, support them and honour the lives of the children they never got to know.
In addition, the walk raises money for the valuable work of national non-profit organisation Bears Of Hope Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support.
Participants will walk beside the beautiful Tuggerah Lake foreshore, partake in a remembrance service and release a flower into the lake in honour of the baby they are walking for.
Choosing Hope aims to support the bereaved, giving them space and care in the loss and grief they have experienced; honour the lives of the babies loved and lost; and to fundraise for the work of Bears of Hope to provide much needed teddy bears, care packages, counselling and support services for the bereaved.
“In the eight years I have run this event on the Central Coast – and then replicated at multiple locations across Australia – we have raised over $700,000 for Bears of Hope,” organiser Trish Thomas said.
“I personally created this event nine years ago after the loss of my unborn son after he died from injuries sustained by a car accident I was in.
“I was deeply heartbroken and saddened, but grew so moved in hearing that statistically, I was by no means a minority, even though I felt alone and unable to relate to others.
“One in four pregnant women will have a miscarriage and eight babies are stillborn each day in Australia.
“These statistics show that infant loss is a very widely felt and known experience, but continues to remain not so talked about, which also would assume that the bereaved may not be very supported.
“I wanted to create a space where we could come together with other bereaved families and feel seen, our experience acknowledged and the loss of our baby/s honoured.
“Taking the steps they never got to take may also in turn be a step forward in the healing journey too.”
For more information go to: www.choosinghope.com.au