Swimming for Lille, Tilde & Fleur

In August 2012 my husband Craig and I lost our identical twin girls Lille & Tilde to Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS). Then in May 2013 our daughter Fleur was inexplicably stillborn.

To mark their 10th birthdays, I’ve decided to swim 30km’s in 30 days to raise money for the Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation.

Craig and I first learned about Dr Catherine Hamlin’s work when we were looking for a way in which we could honour Lille, Tilde and Fleur through a charity with direct impacts on women and babies.

Dr Catherine Hamlin alongside her husband Dr Reg Hamlin moved to Ethiopia in 1959 where they started Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia and pioneered the internationally recognised best practice for treating obstetric fistula.

Since then, over 60,000 women have been treated for obstetric fistula in Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia hospitals and since 2007, 234 midwives have graduated from the Hamlin Collage of Midwives, saving over 20,000 babies.

Like most of you reading this, we had the privileged benefit of the best medical care however, in other parts of the world such as Ethiopia, 50% of births take place without a doctor or nurse present and more than 1,000 obstetric fistulas occur each year.

Tragically, 93% of obstetric fistula survivors give birth to a stillborn baby, often after an agonising obstructed birth lasting days. These women then go on to live with profound lifelong internal injuries which leave them incontinent and cut off from their community.

This fundraiser is for these women, their carers and the babies they save.

No donation amount is too small and every dollar is deeply appreciated and will contribute to:

• $50 will provide physiotherapy treatment for one patient

• $200 will provide nutritious meals for five patients during their stay

• $700 will provide life changing fistula surgery to a woman suffering in silence

• $780 will fully stock a midwifery clinic with medical supplies for a whole year

• $1,725 will provide surgery to a woman with more complicated injuries

• $6,000 will provide transport for 100 women from rural health centres to the closest Hamlin hospital

Whilst Craig and I and our families feel the impact of our daughters in our lives every day, it’s through the Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation that their impact will reach further.

Their lives will help other women and babies go on to thrive, which as their Mum, makes me very proud.

With love,

Anna, Craig, Sam and Bowen, and our darling girls Lille and Tilde, and Fleur.