One year on

It’s been a year today since Charlie died. It’s so much easier to write positive, upbeat updates but to write about what the last year has been like for us is really difficult. Grief is such a long process and i don’t think you can ever get over losing a child. People tell me in time I’ll learn to live with it.

I really can’t believe it’s been a year already, it feels like time has stood still. I still wake up and think it must be a horrible dream, every morning I look for Charlie next to me in bed and then it hits me all over again. I still can’t believe it actually happened to us. It’s something you read about in a magazine and think what an awful thing to happen to someone but this time it was us and that awful story is our reality.

To end on a positive note with the help of our family and friends we have raised over £14,000 this year for the Meningitis Trust and another £1,000 for Alder Hey Intensive Care. We have had over 173,000 hits to the blog and almost 400 celebs retweeted for us. At the height of our Twitter campaign we were in the top 3% most influential Twitter accounts. I even got to meet royalty! Not bad for a year’s work :)

Meningitis Trust Android App

Last week i helped launch the Meningitis Trust App for Android phones by writing a letter to the Editor which was sent to every newspaper in the country. I am urging parents to download the app so they have the signs and symptoms at a touch of button. Download the app by clicking on the following link (they also do an iPhone one) http://www.meningitis-trust.org/meningitis-info/signs-and-symptoms/iphone-application/ and you can read my letter here http://www.meningitis-trust.org/katy-manns-letter-to-all/

Happy birthday Charlie

Happy 1st birthday to our wonderful little Charlie. I just don't have any other words than that today.

Six months

It’s been six months today since Charlie died. The longest six months of my life. I don’t think it’s even possible to describe what the last six months have been like for us but for every bad day we’ve had something wonderful and unexpected has happened. If you’d have told me the day Charlie died what we would have done in six months I would never have believed you. Over 131,000 people have read Charlie’s story and we have raised around £9,000 with more money still to come in and more fundraisers planned.

We strongly believe that Charlie is still around us and we’ve had so many positive experiences this year we know he’s a very busy boy. He’ll always be a big part of our family and we talk about him all the time. I think sometimes people are scared to mention his name to me in case it’s a painful reminder but there isn’t a second goes by that I don’t think about him. He’s one of my favourite topics of conversations and I love it when people talk about him, I know people haven’t forgotten him then. The 15 weeks he was with us was one of the happiest times of my life and they are happy memories not painful ones.

We’ve had some really good support from our family and friends and even now six months later I still get cards in the post from friends to let me know they haven’t forgotten. Yesterday a package arrived from a friend with some sky lanterns and we’re going to send them up to Charlie this evening. As always we are celebrating Charlie’s life today not mourning it. Charlie’s life had a purpose and he came to us so we would do the work we’ve done after his death. He came here to save others and we are so incredibly proud of him.

100,000!

In the early hours of this morning we reached 100,000 hits! We just can't believe how far it's come. When i first wrote it i thought maybe a few of my friends would read it but within 24 hours of posting it on Facebook it had 6,000 hits. We thought that was incredible but would never have believed that less than four months later we would hit 100,000! 300 celebrities have retweeted it and the total of their combined followers is over 37 million.

It seems fitting that we reached this milestone today. A year ago today i had my 20 week scan and we found out we having a healthy baby boy. We went shopping afterwards and bought his first few outfits, James chose a dinosaur vest for him. We were going to keep the sex of the baby a secret until he was born but James came home and told his Grandma that we'd bought some blue clothes so that lasted all of a day! We went out for a meal that evening and pretty much decided then that he was called Charlie. His middle name took a bit more negotiating ;)

So a year later and 100,000 people have read Charlie's story. Sadly it doesn't bring our baby back but it's a lovely way to remember and honour him. Thank you to everyone who has helped us with our campaign.