Dear Supporter

Welcome to our latest edition of Footprints. Since our last issue we have yet again seen stillbirth hitting the headlines, and never more so than in April, when The Lancet medical journal published its first ever Series on Stillbirth. This seminal report revealed that the UK has one of the worst stillbirth records when compared with similar high-income nations.

We contributed the Parent Commentary to the Series and were also heavily involved with the Series’ publicity campaign. The shocking findings that the UK had the second worst stillbirth rate amongst 35 other similar nations, really made the headlines, with over 350 media outlets covering the story in the UK alone!

Such widespread media coverage prompted a joint campaign between Sands and influential women’s magazine Grazia, calling for the government to fund research into what is causing stillbirths and come up with potential screening techniques to identify at-risk babies. We received a fantastic level of support from the public with over 22,600 supporters of the campaign signing our petition which we presented to Public Health Minister, Anne Milton MP, at 10 Downing Street please see here for latest update.

In addition to the unprecedented level of media activity following The Lancet, more recently over the summer we have been involved in numerous media stories, articles and appearances, raising valuable awareness of the charity and the ‘human impact’ of stillbirth and neonatal death.

Highlights included Improving Bereavement Care Manager, Judith Schott talking to Gaby Logan on Channel 5's 'The Wright Stuff Extra'; Trustee, Vanessa Kinsey-Thatcher appearing on ITV's 'This Morning' talking to Dr Chris Steele about the shortage of midwives in UK hospitals; as well as Great North Run participant, Simon Shepherd, one of over 40 Sands runners tackling the famous 13.1 mile Great North Run in September, being interviewed by BBC1.

As opportunities, such as The Lancet Series show, these are very exciting times for us as a charity as we continue to grow and reach out to those we seek to support and those we seek to influence. With so much going on and so much planned, we thought you would like to see what we have planned for Sands over the next 3 years. Our Strategy – Towards 2014 which we hope will help all those interested in our work to better understand where we are going and what we hope to achieve.

This year’s AGM & Members’ Conference, hosted by our North Network in Liverpool saw our two guest speakers Andrew Malm and Rachel Hayden sharing their experiences and expertise and in addition, Erica Stewart, our Bereavement Support Services Manager giving an overview of the range of support services that Sands offers.

As I write this the final preparations are underway for our annual Lights of Love services on Friday 9 December. Once again there will be six services taking place across the UK, please see here for full details of venues and how you can take part and have a message tag included on one of our trees.

On 18 January 2012, we will be holding our second parliamentary reception in the Terrace Pavilion, House of Commons when we will be launching our new report: Preventing Babies’ Deaths: What Needs To Be Done. To find out more about the event and how you can get involved please see here.

As you can see there is much that has happened and a great deal that is planned over the coming months. However, we can’t do any of this, without the continued support and dedication of our fundraisers up and down the country working tirelessly to raise the vital funds we need each month to carry on our work.

All that is left for me to do is to wish you well and look forward to seeing many of you at Westminster next month.

Best wishes, Steve

Steve Hale, Chair of Board Trustees

P.S. Thank you to everyone that took the time to complete the short survey regarding how we communicate with our supporters, the feedback you have provided has been invaluable.