“What we wish the judges knew”

Some reason we never got picked to go to the finals

You know when you feel like your hard work has finally paid off? It’s finally your time?

For a moment, we thought The Sun’s Who Cares Wins Awards would finally be our moment.

To be honest, I never expected to win, but hoped for the opportunity to shine a light on our work at Little Heartbeats, which raises awareness of PPROM (preterm premature rupture of membranes) and has allowed us to help thousands of families through their own PPROM journeys.

In our entry, I shared our own PPROM story of losing our first baby daughter, Sinead, and how it led us to create Little Heartbeats. The most painful and hardest day of my life was giving birth to my firstborn baby on the 15th April 2010. She never got a chance at life because no one invested in PPROM at the time, and I promised her we would change things so others can have the chance we didn’t get.

It hasn’t been easy, as I have lost additional babies while mentoring others through their own difficult pregnancies, but I still find this work to be a blessing despite the many challenges.

Part of the reason I hoped to win so badly was to have a larger platform to share our story and give more PPROM families hope and resources. As a volunteer, I do not get a salary like many other non-profit charitable causes. Over the years, I’ve been asked why I don’t charge for my services, and my response is because the women I look after are at the most vulnerable moments of their lives, and due to the risks of PPROM, the last thing our mothers and families need is to pay for support.

I even thought about how amazing it would have been to be featured at the ceremony.

It would have given the opportunity to share our story of our Sinead, Little Heartbeats, the research we’ve done, the changes we’ve made, and how we’ve helped thousands of families across the globe impacted by PPROM, from saving babies’ lives to helping parents through baby loss.

It would have given the opportunity to chat with presenters like Piers Morgan, who may have given us a voice to share how important our work is with the world.

And it would have given the opportunity to tell one of the attendees — one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Rod Stewart — how much his song “Sailing” meant to me, as we played it at Sinead’s funeral. It truly seemed meant to be.

But instead, we were told the judges had not chosen Little Heartbeats. To be honest, I cried for days. I was totally and utterly heartbroken.

While we may not have won the award, we win with every family affected by PPROM who now know they are not alone. We win with every mum who reaches out to say:

Thank you for letting me know I have choices.
Thank you for being there no matter the outcome.
Thank you for giving me more time with my baby.
Thank you for letting me know there is hope.
Thank you for sharing the importance of knowing the right time to deliver.
Thank you for reminding me I’m able to speak up when I know things aren’t quite right.
Thank you for helping to save my baby’s life.

While the our governments and NHS trusts have not yet recognised our achievements and contributions such as getting the PPROM guidelines reinstated, implementing the UKOSS study, Implementing the PPROM research survey's 2022 and raising thousands for the resealing membrane research project, we will continue to raise awareness and work diligently to better understand the impact of PPROM. We will also continue to create and send care packs to our mums, which have proven to be beneficial to our PPROM families. We hope to receive recognition for our efforts from these entities to expand our platform and do more to support our mums.

Thank you to everyone who nominated us for the award, and to my family, friends, volunteers, and supporters for always standing by us. One day will be our day, but until then, Little Heartbeats will work even harder to raise awareness of PPROM with our Sinead name to remind us to never give up.

* Copyrights of the Sun, David Nelson and Glen Minikin

* Video filmed by David

* Photo by Glen Minikin

* Watch the video here: https://fb.watch/d1jbDkBRFr/

* Feel free to download our song, “Where There’s a Heartbeat, There’s Hope” or visit our website to learn more, volunteer, or donate today. https://ditto.fm/where-theres-a-heartbeat-theres-hope

See below our interview.....