Zachary’s Fundraising

By Katie Randall-Stratton

Our little man, always loved never forgotten. 

Zachary Wroughton Gain Randall-Stratton was born sleeping on Tuesday 2nd April 2013 at 1.27pm weighing 7lb 2oz. After Zachary was born Jools and I were able to spend 28 precious hours with him and enjoyed lots of cuddles. In this time we bathed and clothed him. Our immediate family visited and each held Zachary before our vicar performed a blessing. The hospital brought in a bed for Jools and we had Zachary in a cot at the end of my bed. The next day we took more photos, took prints of his hands and feet, locks of all our hair (he had lots!), and made a cast of his left foot to go in our memory box provided by Swindon Sands.  Leaving Zachary in the hospital room was really hard as was going back to a house full of baby stuff.

The love, prayers and support from people have helped to get us where we are today and have provided great comfort. Just a few weeks after losing Zachary my Cousin Steve Randall did a 100 mile bike ride in Cambridge - raising a staggering £1300. As well as a Justgiving page, we set up a memorial website for Zachary that we can add to over the weeks and years and it allows people to send messages, light virtual candles and make donations. We requested donations to Sands instead of flowers at Zachary’s services and were humbled both at the attendance at the services and people’s generosity. Since then our friend Lee Bryant ran the St Albans half marathon and our friend Ross Overhead walked the length of the Ridgeway (all 90 odd miles) in three days!

Raising awareness and money are ways we can do something positive. Our little man has already featured in two Swindon Advertiser newspaper articles (resulting in a generous donation from a local person touched by his story), will appear in our local NCT magazine, and fundraising/donations for Sands in his name currently stands at close to £4000! We know that life will never be the same before Zachary was born sleeping but we also know he is smiling down on us now and in the future.