Thanks for taking the time to visit the JustGiving page for the Crispie Crusade (19th - 25th March 2012)

We're asking you to make and sell as many crispie cakes as you can during campaign week in aid of the Miscarriage Association. For your own fundraising pack email hello@crispiecrusade.org.uk

Take a few moments to read Hannah's Story and find out how chocolate and crisped rice can make a difference to someone going through a miscarriage...

Hannah's Story
This is a true story. Once upon a time there was a girl called Hannah. Hannah longed for a baby, so when she found out she was pregnant she was so excited. Then, only a few weeks later, she started bleeding.

Hannah was just 18 and lived on her own having left care a few months previously. She was so sad to be losing her baby and felt so unwell that she didn’t seek any medical help. Instead, she stayed at home in bed and lost her baby all on her own. She did pick up her phone and texted her friend Julia though a few days later; Julia is a youth worker who, with her partner Anna, had provided respite care for Hannah at weekends for several years. Hannah told Julia she didn’t feel like eating or doing anything, and was still bleeding a lot.

Julia couldn’t get to Hannah, so she asked Hannah to send one of her friends out on a mission to gather some important equipment: crisped rice, dark chocolate, and paper cases. Hannah was very confused, but did it anyway. When Hannah had the important equipment, Julia talked her through how to make crispie cakes by melting the chocolate, mixing it with the crisped rice, and putting  the mixture into the cases to set: easy! Hannah remembered making crispie cakes when she was a little girl and she and her friend enjoyed spending an afternoon cooking together. Hannah found that she was terribly tempted by the mixture so rather a lot of it was eaten before it made it into the cases! But that was okay: at least Hannah had eaten something.

Hannah asked Julia why she’d got Hannah to make crispie cakes. Julia explained that crisped rice is a fortified cereal with vitamins and iron in it, which are good things when you’re losing blood, and that very dark chocolate also contains minerals to help the body to absorb iron; that there’s even some research to suggest it helps blood to clot too. Hannah thought that was a good reason to make them and eat them because her body was going through a lot, but really she knew that making the crispie cakes was about doing something positive, fun, friendly, familiar, and that it was something to do in the face of something she could do nothing about. And, it was a much tastier and cheaper option than steak or green veggies.

Three years later, Julia found out she was pregnant; this was a miracle as Julia had fertility issues and was starting to lose hope that she would ever have a baby. Julia and Anna were so happy, even though they knew there was a chance things could go wrong however with every passing week it looked like everything would be okay. When they got to their 12-week scan they discovered that their baby had died. Both were devastated as there had been no clue anything was wrong. Julia went into hospital a few days later to have a medical miscarriage.

Julia checked her phone when she got home that night. There was one text that made her smile through the tears. It was from Hannah and it said simply: Make crispie cakes please. Anna went to get the ingredients the next day and she and Julia sat together in bed that night holding each other, crying, and nibbling on crispie cakes and thinking of their lost baby and of Hannah and of what an awful, awful ‘club’ this was to belong to.

 

Two months later, one of Julia’s friends had a miscarriage; the friend had been very supportive to Julia when she lost her baby. Julia gave her friend a bag containing all the ingredients for crispie cakes and a card telling her all about Hannah. The friend went home and made crispie cakes with her two small children that night. She wrote to Julia afterwards: “Thank you so much for the ingredients. It was so thoughtful and just what we all needed. Since it happened I haven’t wanted to let my kids out of my sight: they don’t know what’s going on with their mum, but by making crispie cakes together it felt like they were in on it in some way. I really enjoyed eating them too, a perfect feel-good treat after a horrible week.”

A few months after that, one of the friend's friends lost a baby and she took her the ingredients and told her about Hannah too. Julia texted Hannah to let her know and Hannah said: “Cool, it’s like we’re in a relay. All these people going through it and yet we’re all connected. None of us are alone, are we?”

It can be so hard to know what to say to someone who’s going through a miscarriage, whether they’re the one who’s pregnant or not; partners grieve and hurt too. What you could do is share Hannah’s story and a simple bit of home baking with them, or even just give someone the ingredients so they can do it themselves. Words can come later, love and support comes first.

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