Two bereaved parents from Sheffield have raised over £4,000 before cycling the length of New Zealand in memory of their two sons which they lost at 40 and 18 weeks.
Roy and Mim Prestwich lost their first son Lenny at 40 weeks only 20 minutes after he was born in December last year.
Following this, their second son, Bhai died at 18 weeks gestation in July.
The two parents have set up a charity called Lenny’s Legacy in memory to help support other bereaved parents.
Roy Prestwich said: “I will never forget the look in his eyes. I asked everyone to leave the room.
“Lenny was lay dead on the trolley, Mim was in complete shock and had just given birth…. what do I do?
“The single hardest thing that I have done in my entire life was driving home in the car from Chesterfield hospital with an empty car seat and the knowledge that my beautiful son lay in the mortuary on his own.
“I cried all the way, full on wailing, I could hardly see and drove ridiculous slowly.”
The two parents are putting all of the donations towards the setting up of the charity.
Mim Prestwich said: “Of course, every bereaved parent is in shock – no one expects their baby to die.
“In the evening it started to feel as if he wasn’t there anymore and we asked that he be taken to the mortuary.
“I remember thinking that no amount of cuddling and talking would bring him back and what I couldn’t face was them taking him away.
“The next day we decided not to see Lenny again, we felt we couldn’t bare to say goodbye again.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the parents as they prepare to cycle over 2,500km, a journey which will begin on the 22 November.
The couple have set a target of £20,000 for Lenny’s Legacy, which you can contribute to here.
For more information on their charity, click here.
