Why I love October even though I find it hard.

Why is October so great? 

I always enjoy October. It gets off to a great start because my husband has his birthday in the first week. Our two sons are at adorable ages right now and they just love it when there is a birthday to be celebrated. 

On my husband's birthday morning this year, the kids had the best time presenting their Pappa with his special birthday breakfast and watching/helping him open all his cards and presents! After dinner that evening the celebrations continued with a lively rendition of the birthday song as they helped him to blow out his candles. It makes me so happy to see the joy they get out of celebrating other people's birthdays. They love making others feel special and that gives me a very proud and warm feeling!

Here in the UK, October is very much an autumn month. We live in Maidenhead which is in Berkshire, not too far from Windsor and also very close to lots of gorgeous countryside, spectacular woodland and we are also on the River Thames. As a runner, I am spoilt for choice of stunning places to train. I love autumn because of the stunning colours which are on display, greens are turning to oranges and reds and it feels like there is so much to look at. 

I love that it is a little colder too. There is nothing nicer than putting on a big chunky jumper and a pair of boots. I like to feel nice and cosy in my clothes and Autumn is the perfect season for that! 

In fact I am wearing my new favourite warm jumper as I write this! It's from Primark!! 

Then of course there is Halloween at the end of the month. We don't usually do anything to mark it but our 6 year old has requested that we do trick or treating so we will probably knock on a few doors with some friends from school. I have heard of a street nearby that usually has a few houses which are adorned with spooky decorations so we will hopefully try down there. 

These are all lovely things that happen in this month and I will really enjoy them all. 

October is also the month in which Baby Loss Awareness Week is held. This year it is 9th - 15th October. 

I usually find it really difficult because, as most people who know me are aware, when my husband and I were trying to start a family, I suffered from recurrent miscarriage. 

Because we had miscarriages several times, I have tried to forget what the due dates were going to be, as I would find each anniversary very hard to deal with. Baby Loss Awareness Week is actually useful for me as it is a fixed date on which I can purposely reflect on what happened to us. 

As time goes by the pain gets easier to deal with and I don't think about it every single day any more, although it stilll sometimes smacks me round the face when I least expect it. I find it helpful to have this specific week of collective reflection as sharing experiences and emotions with others who have been through similar, helps me to realise that I am not alone in this. 

You may know that I have done a fair bit of fundraising for Tommy's the baby charity. Tommy's do research into the reasons why people have miscarriages, still births and premature births. This has been really useful for me during the healing process. 

Last year I ran the London Marathon for Tommy's - you can read a bit about it in my blog post here. 

This year I wanted to do more fundraising and when a friend suggested that we do the Royal Parks Half Marathon together, I jumped at the chance. 

When I looked at the date I realised that the day of the event is actually the final day of Baby Loss Awareness Week - it just seemed too perfect. 

I knew I had to do something different to get people to sponsor me this time. Just running was not going to cut it. 

My friend I am running with raised a lot of money for charity last year by doing a lot of her marathon training runs in fancy dress. She has agreed to lend me what I thought was her funniest costume and I will be doing the half marathon dressed as a banana! 

I've already done a few training runs around the streets and at my running club's track night. My fellow club members donated £200 between them for me to do the entire track session. Oh my gosh it was hot!

My fundraising has reached £628 for this challenge so far. It has received a lot of attention. I was even in the local paper in my costume! 

This takes my total up to an amazing £8314.91 !!

It means so much to me that I have taken the worst time in my life and managed to make a positive out of it. I really believe in the work that Tommy's do and it is a comfort to me that I am able to help in a small way. 

For this reason I am hoping that this October will be massively healing and also lots of fun! 

You can find out more about Baby Loss Awareness Week here. 

Link to my fundraising page is here.

UPDATE: My final amount raised during this challenge was £883.81 

This means my current total for Tommy's is £8569.91 !!! AMAZING!

Cover Photo Credit - Jodie Humphries