Team Role: Cyclist

 

Job: Full Time Mother

I am a proud mother of 2 wonderful kids and a loving wife to my husband.  We live in Hatton Vale, Queensland and love spending time together as a family. 

 

We never had any problems falling pregnant but our biggest problem was staying pregnant and having a healthy baby.  We lost two babies to Miscarriages, Jessica was born 10 weeks premature and Nicolas was a healthy full term baby. 

 

Team Role: Behind the Scenes

 

Job: Stay at home Mum & Bereaved Parent

 

I am the proud mother of 3 beautiful children.  Our first baby, our beautiful son Ethan was born sleeping (stillborn) at full term.  He was perfectly formed and a good weight. I had an otherwise healthy, happy pregnancy, but right at the end things went terribly wrong somehow and our son died.  We will never know why Ethan died, but we still love him and miss him every day. 

 

Since then, we have been lucky enough to have two little girls.  They are both normal, healthy children, but both their deliveries were not without drama.  Our youngest child was born a little too early and spent the first 2 weeks of her life in the Special Care Nursery.

Team Role: Behind the Scenes

 

Job: Marketing and Public Relations

 

Being a premature baby myself and knowing what little support was given to my mother at that time has helped motivate me to take part in this journey is to raise awareness and fundraise for the Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital Foundation. 

This journey is about providing support and funds for those future mothers to have the best possible chance of having a healthy baby.

 

Also research to assist those who are infertile and desperately want options to help them conceive.

 

I hope to use my experience in my role of Marketing and Public Relations for a large Non Profit Organisation to assist this cause to the best of my ability.

Team Role: Behind the Scenes

 

Job: Customer Service/Administration

 

I am mother of 2 healthy vibrant children and like most mothers I was fortunate 2 have a trouble free birth/labour, with no complications. I have been happily married for 17 years and although I have a youth work degree I decided to work in customer service and have worked in customer service/ administration for over 20 years.

 

I have seen the trials & tribulations of very close friends who have gone through difficult circumstances with their children & that is why I have decided to help raise funds for the Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital Foundation by working alongside Diana and Carolyn on their Journey4Jessica.

Team Role: Behind the Scenes

 

Job: General Manager 

 

Like many other women I spent a lot of my youth worrying about birth control, never imagining that in the end it would be the least of my worries.  Life experiences like University and broken romances meant that, like many women of my generation, I was not ready to settle down until my thirties.  Our generation also believed (I hope they still don't) that anytime up to 40 was fine to have a baby.  I suppose, given that my degree was in biological science, I was naïve not to realise the effects that age would have on fertility.  I soon became truly educated when after several long stressful years of trying I became pregnant with my son and almost the first words my wonderful obstetrician uttered were 'you geriatric mothers do make it difficult on yourselves'.  I was only 35 but the statistics spoke for themselves!

 

Although I was lucky to have my treasured boy, many subsequent attempts weren't so successful so I suffered some of the heartbreak I now hear about daily.  During my career in science I was fortunate enough to work with the extremely dedicated researchers at the Perinatal Research Centre in Brisbane.  I suppose it was my personal experience, but I was humbled by this dedicated team of scientists and clinicians, led by Professor Paul Colditz, who dedicate their lives to reducing the incidences of pregnancy difficulties and work to minimize the damage when things do go wrong.  I learnt first-hand that we are truly on the brink of some amazing breakthroughs but that these breakthroughs are largely reliant upon new technology, which isn't cheap.

 

I have now devoted myself to supporting researchers around Australia who, like Prof Colditz' group, work towards saving babies lives.  A dedicated team of researchers from around Australia assist us to identify medical projects that desperately need funding to help them find the answers.  I believe that together we can prevent families from having to suffer the tragedy of pregnancy complications and loss.  I can't express in words how grateful I am for the support, hard work and dedication of the wonderful Journey4Jessica team!