Bradford Midwife’s Fundraiser for Baby Loss Charity SANDS

A Bradford hospital midwife has said she plans to take part in a skydive to raise funds for a stillbirth and neonatal death charity.

Julie Key said she will jump from a plane into the sky above Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria in a bid to raise at least £470 for the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society (SANDS).

Mrs Key, 59, who works at Bradford Royal Infirmary, has been a bereavement support midwife for 18 years.

She said she would be taking the leap just days before her 60th birthday and joked she wasn’t sure if she was “brave or stupid”.

Mrs Key said she would be joined in the tandem parachute on September 11 by her partner and some of the families she has supported over the years.

She explained that her links with Bradford hospitals were long-standing.

“I have been a type 1 diabetic for 47 years and was diagnosed at 12 at St Luke’s (Hospital) where I spent a month. While I was a patient, I decided I wanted to be a nurse,” she said.

“Through the ups and downs of life with diabetes, I thought it was time to do something that would mark my life and raise money for a charity close to my heart, as skydiving has evolved,” she added.

The SANDS charity, which Mrs Key’s skydive will raise money for, helps the maternity unit at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

It offers a free memory box to every bereaved family so they can create and save their own memories of their child.

According to the charity, around 13 babies die shortly before, during or just after birth every day in the UK.

Mrs Key said: “All midwives are in an incredibly privileged position to join women and their families at what can be one of the most exciting and happiest times of their lives.

“However, not all babies come home – and some parents are left empty-handed.

“SANDS exists to reduce the number of children who die and to ensure that anyone affected by the death of a child receives the best possible care.”

Skydiving in September was “my way of showing my support for this incredible charity,” she said.

“I need to raise £470 but I’d like to raise a lot more.”