Derry boy doing 12 runs of Christmas to raise money for SANDS

Kian’s family have been supported by SANDS since his little sister Hannah passed away ten years ago. Kian, who will be twelve-years-old soon, had wanted to do something like this for a while but mum Carey helped him get the wheels in motion after they attended a Lights of Love service organised by SANDS.

Kian said: “As it’s harder for families who have lost their baby at Christmas, I thought it would be a great idea to do it now."

SANDS was set up by bereaved families to provide peer support to parents who have lost a baby. The charity raise awareness of stillbirth and neo-natal death to break the stigma surrounding it.

Dad James said: “At the very start, when Hannah passed away, SANDS were a great charity for us to go to. They were very, very supportive of us.”

Kian is running for 12 consecutive days, adding half a kilometre to his distance every day. He began with 0.5km and will run 6km on his final day. Over the course of the 12 days, Kian will have run 39 kilometres but he has been taking it all in his stride.

“The running has been going good so far – no walks yet!” he said.

“Kian does cross-country in school so that was the basis of him doing this,” James added. “We live out in Maydown so the majority of Kian’s runs have been along the main road, running in loops and a few of the early ones were in the house on his mammy’s treadmill too.”

"My friend Oisín has done some runs with me,” Kian continued. “And my mum has done the majority with me. On my last run, my cousins and brother Dean and my mum will be out running with me.”

Kian has raised £1,200 for SANDS so far and his dad couldn’t be any prouder.

"It's really, really emotional to have Kian do this, I’m so, so proud of him. It's just amazing what he's doing, absolutely amazing. He's got donations from as far as his auntie and uncle in America and to see all the people that have been donating to him, it's just been amazing. Mummy and Daddy are just so blown away by everything that he's doing here.

“We want to give a big thank you to everybody that has supported him so far. It's been crazy. He came home from school one day with a bag of money that people in his own class donated. From someone giving 50p and someone giving 100 pound, we’re so thankful for all of it.”

Kian is very grateful for all the support an encouragement he’s been given so far and hopes the money raised will go to helping more families like his own.

Donations can be made on PayPal using Kian’s mum’s email address: [email protected].

For support from SANDS or for more information on the work they do, visit https://northernireland.sands.org.uk/