Halifax dad raising money for still born babies is 'devastated' by lack of support
Ben walked around the full Greek island of Rhodes, a total of 150 miles nonstop, with no sleep at the height of summer.
Last updated 7th Sep 2021
A Halifax dad, who's daughter was still born at 38 weeks pregnant, says he's 'devastated' by the lack of public support, after completing a 150 mile non-stop challenge across Rhodes in Greece.
The aim is to raise ÂŁ20,000 for the charity he set up, The Kallipateira Moorhouse Foundation, in memory of his daughter, Kallipateira.
They launched their charity to help save babies' lives through research and support other parents who have experienced the death of a baby.
On 14th August, Ben set off around the full Greek island of Rhodes, a total of 150 miles nonstop, with no sleep at the height of summer.
He completed the challenge in just 42 hours and created history doing the challenge.
He said:
"It was beyond extreme, it was absolutely brutal in every way possible, in reality, the human body shouldn't be able to go through that amount of endurance in those conditions, but because of the why, thank fully I managed to get around in one piece.
"My daughter was the main purpose, the reason why. In society, sadly, there's a lot of taboo and the subject of still birth is not spoke of.
"For the last 30 miles, I was seeing double, I wasn't able to see properly and I just had to grit my teeth and somehow continue to the finish line, but if it wasn't for my daughters memory and wanting to save other babies lives, I could've quite easily dropped to the floor, it was so dangerous.
However, Ben tells us he's devastated by the lack of public support shown and believes some of that's to do with the stigma around still birth and baby deaths.
He said:
"Sadly society, once they hear about baby death, they just cross the street, cross the road, and I just don't think, no matter how much I saw, no matter how much awareness, no matter how many baby loss awareness weeks we have, I just don't think this will change.
"If there's a miracle out there I will raise my target.
"What I would've done to have my daughter go to Rhodes with me, but she wasn't there. As a dad, I'm just doing my best in her memory to help other families, but I do think if there was better awareness in society, I would've loved to of smashed my target. But, if it's not happened to people, they don't care about it unfortunately."
So far Ben has raised over ÂŁ4,000 for the charity, and hopes to fundraise ÂŁ20,000.
You can contribute to his campaign here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rhodes2021