Sixteen friends from a new gym have joined forces to run the Manchester Marathon this weekend with the aim of raising £3,000 for baby loss charity Forever Stars.
The Moai Strength & Wellness team are taking on the Manchester Marathon on Sunday 27th April in support of Forever Stars’ 2025 fundraising campaign Talking Through Tears, which has a £60,000 fundraising target that will be used to finance life-changing play therapy sessions for children dealing with the loss of a baby sibling.
As well as the gym’s owner and founder Rian Charles, the runners are Callum Boorman, Katie Fisher, Mitchell Higgins, Harrison Higgins, Fraser Higgins, Colby Hackett, Mandeep Landa, Chris Neilson, Alex Neilson, William Osa, Sheridan Thomas, Michael Walsh, Ryan Woodward, Angus Wright, and Antony York, all aged between 22 and 36.
The Manchester Marathon is the UK’s second largest marathon, and the fourth largest in Europe. The event will be the first marathon for the majority of the team’s members, with just two having previously run the 26.2-mile distance in around 3.5 hours. Whilst all are of course aiming to complete the race, one runner Chris Neilson is hoping for a sub-three-hour finish time.
Moai Strength & Wellness opened in Nottingham, on 18 January this year. It specialises in group Kettlebell classes, Personal Training, Yoga, and offers expert coaching for all levels of fitness. It originally began life as a Personal Training business set-up by Rian in 2023, but with growing demand for PT sessions and his Kettlebell classes, transitioned to a dedicated gym and training space and a team of PTs and coaches.
“Forever Stars is an amazing charity,” says Rian,
“and we love what it does, the support it provides families across Nottingham, the projects it has funded, and its whole team’s ethos and drive. When we heard about its 2025 fundraising campaign, we all wanted to do something to help, and as a group of people that love keeping fit and active, a marathon seemed the obvious fundraiser for us, as well as a huge milestone for the gym.”
Forever Stars is dedicated to supporting families living in the East Midlands who have suffered a stillbirth or infant loss, and was created by Michelle and Richard Daniels in May 2014 following the stillbirth of their daughter Emily on 19 December 2013. Since, the charity has raised almost £800,000, which it has used to support its vision to promote and protect the health of parents affected by still birth, miscarriage or other perinatal or neonatal death of their child or children, including the Serenity Suite at the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, the Serenity Suite at Nottingham’s City Hospital, the Forever Stars Serenity Garden at Highfield Park Nottingham, and £50,000 donated to Queen’s Medical Centre Nottingham this year to pay for a makeover of its Ward A23 and adjoining garden.
We are always blown-away when people take on challenges to fundraise for Forever Stars,” Richard says,
“and we are so grateful to each of the sixteen runners from Maio. Their strength, dedication and compassion mean so much to our charity and the families we support, and everything they are doing to raise awareness of the heartbreak of baby loss that affects so many families every day.
“This year’s Talking Through Tears campaign is focussed on supporting brothers and sisters with life-changing healing specialist play therapy sessions, that are tailored for individual children to help them understand and manage their emotions following the family’s loss of a baby either by stillbirth or miscarriage,” he says.
“It is inspired by our own experiences of the impact the loss of Emily had on her brother Finlay, who was aged four when his sister was stillborn in December 2013. Our worlds shattered that day,” says Richard.
“But while Michelle and I were trying to deal with our loss and grief, we could see Finlay was struggling too. We wanted to help him understand his feelings and process the loss of his baby sister, and when we discovered play therapy, it provided the kind of support Finlay needed, and healing we couldn’t find for him anywhere else.”
The ‘Talking Through Tears’ campaign aims to raise £60,000. With each play therapy session costing around £55, the average 15 sessions that children need means the total cost is around £800 per child, so the campaign fundraising target will finance support for 75 grieving children.
For information about the campaign visit the Forever Stars website here. To make a donation or fundraise, visit the campaign’s JustGiving page here, or email Forever Stars: enquiries@foreverstars.org. Follow Moai Strength & Wellness on Instagram here and donate via the team’s Just Giving page here.
Forever Stars is a charity dedicated to supporting families living in Nottingham and the wider East Midlands who have suffered a stillbirth or infant loss. Its mission is to promote and protect the health of parents affected by stillbirth or other perinatal or neonatal death of their child or children, and in particular, to relieve suffering and emotional distress amongst such parents. A dedicated team of volunteers runs the charity, and fundraises and campaigns to improve the bereavement care for parents, families and their loved ones. Forever Stars was officially given charity status by the Charity Commission in England (reg no. 1156990) on 9 May 2014. Forever Stars is a member of the Baby Loss Awareness Alliance.
For more information, visit the charity’s website.
