Friends from Nottingham’s Moai Strength & Wellness gym are powering towards their £3,000 fundraising target for Forever Stars’ 2025 campaign, Talking Through Tears.
The Moai Strength & Wellness team completed the Manchester Marathon – the UK’s second largest marathon, and the fourth largest in Europe – on 27th April. To date, they have raised a huge £2,059, just over two-thirds of their target.
The Manchester Marathon team included the Moai’s owner and founder Rian Charles, 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, and Antony York, all aged between 22 and 36. Unfortunately Angus Wright was unable to take part due to illness.
Fastest finishers
First over the line for the Moai team was Chris Neilson in 2 hours 54 minutes – realising his dream for a sub-three-hour finish time. Alex Neilson completed the marathon in 3 hours 58 minutes.
Talking Through Tears
This year’s Talking Through Tears campaign is focussed on supporting brothers and sisters with life-changing healing specialist play therapy sessions, which 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.
“The campaign is inspired by our own experiences of the impact the loss of our daughter Emily had on her brother Finlay, who was aged four when his sister was stillborn in December 2013,” explains Forever Stars’ Richard Daniels. “Our worlds shattered that day. 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 campaign is aiming 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,” Richard explains.
Blown-away
“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 runners from Moai for taking on such a massive challenge and completing the marathon to raise so much money for our campaign. 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.”
For information about Talking Through Tears, visit our campaign page. To make a donation or fundraise, visit the campaign’s JustGiving page, or email Forever Stars: enquiries@foreverstars.org.
Follow Moai Strength & Wellness on Instagram and donate via the team’s Just Giving page. Moai Strength & Wellness opened on Bennerley Road, Blenheim Industrial Estate, 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.
