Tobiah's Experience

Hi, my name is Tobiah, and I am the son of Mama Academy’s CEO, Heidi. I am 14 years old and enjoy football, rugby, tennis and playing FIFA on my Xbox.  I am also the brother of Aidan, who was sadly stillborn before I was born in 2010. From a young age, I’ve known about Aidan and how he died. We have a picture of his hand and footprints and the teddy bear with his name on that are displayed in various places around the house.

Every year we celebrate his birthday by doing things such as going to Legoland, or Sealife London, or even having a picnic at his bench that commemorates him in Windsor Park. This means that his memory won’t be forgotten, and it reminds me of my brother when I’m there.

My mum started the charity in memory of Aidan. Again, from a young age, I was told that mum ran a safer pregnancy charity, but I wondered, what does that actually mean? Well, now that I am 14, I have a greater understanding of what this charity does for expectant parents in the U.K. Pretty much, they help prevent stillbirths from happening by providing information on how to have a safer pregnancy. They also provide pregnancy wallets to hospitals and pregnant people get these wallets, which are now translated into quite a few languages, to put important stuff about their baby in. They also provide Pregnancy Passports for hospitals that have digital notes instead of the handheld ones.

It’s nice being able to say that my mum runs a charity that saves over 1300 little lives a year. I can see that all the work she does pays off and believe me, she is ALWAYS working. Even on the weekend! However, it does help knowing that she is working for a good cause, and it is helping save lives.

In April this year, I live streamed for 11 hours straight on Twitch and managed to raise £400 for the charity, which I’m really proud of. Maybe, next April, you could join me and stream raise money for the charity as well.  You don’t need to join in the gameathon in memory of anyone but if there is someone you’d like to dedicate your game to, it’s a great way to honour them.

Being the brother of Aidan is something I don’t get called or think about really, but sometimes, I can wonder, would I be here or be the age I am if Aidan was here? Or I wonder what it would be like to have an older sibling: would we play football together? Or would we play FIFA together? What job would my mum be doing if Aidan hadn’t have died? But then I pick up my X Box and have fun!

Thank you for reading my blog,

Tobiah