We were fortunate to get pregnant pretty quickly in March 2021, we were excited and happy…… Mim had a healthy straightforward pregnancy, apart from horrendous morning sickness, heartburn and insomnia but Lenny was always healthy and fine. Lenny was Lenny from around 25 weeks once we found out we were having a boy (and had no boy’s names) we came up with a shortlist, but Roy loved Lenny, so called him Lenny to seal the deal. We even had a few late scans because Lenny was breach so we saw him at 36 and 38 weeks by which point he was head down and all was looking good. Mim continued weekly weightlifting and cycling until 37 weeks, even having completed a cycle tour at 6 months.

Mim went into labour naturally on the afternoon of Friday 17^th December and after a few calls with the hospital, arrived at the hospital around 5.50am on Saturday 18^th December. Lenny was born within an hour of arrival at hospital after a straightforward natural birth. Lenny was born, placed on Mim and then quickly resuscitated. After 20 minutes of unsuccessful resuscitation attempts, Lenny was pronounced dead. Lenny was born and then Lenny died.

Lenny’s umbilical cord was wrapped tightly through his legs, over his shoulder and around his body – in the last seconds of labour his oxygen supply was cut off because the cord was so tight. This is something no one could have predicted or prevented. Our beautiful boy died in an accident just as he was entering the world.

Lenny’s death is tragic. But that is not how we want him to be remembered. He is not a tragedy. He is our beautiful first born son. He is a little boy who loved being rocked to sleep whilst his mum cycled, the life and soul of the party that only he was attending for 9 months at between 1am and 4am, the character who gave the sonographer a high five and is always soothed by the sound of his dad’s voice.

We took Lenny on so many adventures during his short life and looked forward to taking him on so many more. When a child dies, you grieve for their entire future – so we promised him at his funeral we would take him on adventures in our hearts. Of course, we weren’t the only ones with exciting plans for him – a new life is celebrated by so many people.

Talking of a new life…. our second son Bhai gave us so much hope, joy and a renewed reason to make exciting plans, devastatingly our hopes were dashed on 31/7/2022 when he died at 18 weeks gestation. So Lenny’s legacy is a chance for family and friends to share their experiences and to remember a cherished child’s short life. We hope that Lenny (and now Bhai too) inspire people to live life to the full, do things outside of the normal day-to-day and to always remember – life is simply too short to ride shit bikes!