Sabine Vandenbroucke is the mother of Raphaël Pryor, who died suddenly and unexpectedly on 16 March 2024, after collapsing during sport at school. She shares how she is raising funds for Child Bereavement UK by taking part in the Brighton Marathon with friends, in Raphaël's memory.

Taking care of your own health is really important when you are bereaved, so the running challenge has been good all round.

A friend and fellow school mum, Barley Birney, encouraged a few mums to do something meaningful to mark the first anniversary of Raphaël's death; we call ourselves 'Raphy's Runners' and we are taking part in the Brighton Marathon on 6 April.

Knowing how much we have been helped by Child Bereavement UK, we thought it was the perfect charity to fundraise for. And the Marathon was far enough away, with plenty of time to prepare, which was important as most of us are not regular runners or I should say, 'weren't'! With time our group widened, and it is fantastic to see how a number of Raphaël's friends will now also be running in Raphaël's honour.

To prepare for the challenge, I first signed up for the 'Couch to 5k' app from the NHS. That seemed like an obvious starting point with a clear programme. An experienced runner friend, Stephen Heal, who is also running the Brighton Marathon in honour of his son, Alex, asked me in September (about six weeks after we signed up), if I had run a marathon before. I laughed and said that of course I hadn't. He then asked if I had run a half marathon. Again, I had to deny. 'A 10k?' No! 'A 5k?' No... his questioning was serious and very well meant.

I swiftly signed up for a 5k race near me in mid-October – I remember that that was pretty hard. The next step was to do a 10k, which I did in early December. By then I had started using the app that my friend Barley used, Runna, in which I put the Brighton Marathon as the target date. In mid-February, I ran the Hampton Court half marathon.

It's fantastic to run with a group. Even if we don't run together physically, we support and encourage each other all the time. As to the fundraising, our friends and family have been very generous. Raphael's school also spread the message widely for which we are very grateful. We also had so many heart-warming messages and generous donations after our article in the newspaper, on the anniversary of Raphaël's death. People can be very kind, even without knowing us or Raphaël.

Grieving is messy and unstructured. Having a running plan towards a set date, has brought structure in our messy world. It helped to get out of bed, for Raphaël. Running a marathon is a serious challenge but cannot be as hard as watching my son die - I call it part of my 'post traumatic growth'. Taking care of your own health is really important when you are bereaved, so the running challenge has been good all round.

The Child Bereavement UK fundraising team send me regular messages of support and they will have a team in Brighton on the day.

My advice to anyone else considering taking on a challenge to raise funds for Child Bereavement UK is that you can do it when you know you are doing it for such an important cause. Doing it with friends makes it fun too. And if your challenge is a race, get some good running shoes!

Pictured above: Inge Cajot, Tille Verhaeghe, Sebastian Van de Velde, Barley Birney, Helene Tjandramaga

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If you have been inspired to take on a challenge for us, please visit our challenge events page, contact our fundraising team on [email protected] or call us on 01242 515 157.