Lancaster personal trainer challenges NHS staff to take on military obstacle course Born Survivor to raise awareness of stillbirth

One in four women will lose a baby in pregnancy and birth, and one in every 225 births ends in a stillbirth.

Hospital ‘Rainbow Clinics’ offer support to bereaved parents and work on vital research to reduce the rate of miscarriages and stillbirths.

But for families in Lancashire and Cumbria, the nearest clinic is in Manchester. Bay Hospitals Charity is helping to fund a new Rainbow Clinic at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, to make this support more accessible to the 365,000 who live across the Morecambe Bay area.

Personal trainer Dan Flynn and his partner Sammy Donohue had planned to take on military obstacle course Born Survivor this September in aid of a good cause or a small charity, and after hearing stories about clients’ personal experiences with baby loss, they knew that the Rainbow Clinic was the cause they were looking for.

Dan and Sammy said: “Since we had our little one, we just want to help as much as we can. It’s too awful to imagine. We had Tommy in December 2017, and I remember coming home and thinking ‘oh my goodness, I’ve just been left with this little bundle!’ But you’ve made it, and you’ve got your health visitors and your midwives who are there to support you. You don’t realise how lucky you are.

“In our line of work we meet a lot of people from every background possible, and so many of them have some kind of connection to the cause. It affects so many people, but it stays behind closed doors. Our goal is to raise awareness of just how common it is to lose a baby in pregnancy, stillbirth or in the early days, for all those people out there feeling like they have to go through the experience alone.”

Since the word got out, Dan and Sammy have managed to build up an impressive team of 26 people to take part in the demanding and extremely muddy 12km Born Survivor obstacle course on September 21, with more joining every week.

Join the team before August 15 to receive a special discounted rate. Contact Dan at Flynn’s Personal Training Studio on [email protected]. To sponsor Dan and Sammy and donate to the Rainbow Clinic, visit JustGiving at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/danflynnpt-rainbowclinic