Flemington mother turns pain into passion with gigantic fundraising effort
A Flemington mother who lost her baby daughter to premature birth complications will hold a gigantic masquerade ball to raise money for premature birth research. Here’s how you can get involved.
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Flemington’s Veronica Johnston will never forget the moment she held her premature baby Eden Rose in her arms.
Her baby was born sleeping but didn’t survive the day.
Ms Johnston has taken her pain and transformed it into a burning desire to make sure no other mother suffers the same fate.
She has decided to host a gigantic masquerade ball at the MCG on February 29, 2020 to raise money for preterm birth prevention research by the Women and Infants Research Foundation.
The ball will include roving magicians, a live band, dancing, delicious food, a cocktail menu, raffles and a memory walk to honour other women’s experiences of premature birth.
Ms Johnston, who lost her little girl due to leaking amniotic fluid on February 28, said she was inspired to hold the ball because she was shocked at the lack of awareness.
“When I went through my experience of going into labour so early I never even knew it could happen,” she said.
“I spoke to a lot of people and realised it’s just not spoken about.”
Ms Johnston said she had picked a masquerade theme for a very special reason.
“It unmasks preterm birth, it acknowledges the mystery of it and its coming to light,” she said.
The mother said the experience of losing her child was absolutely life changing.
“The trauma of knowing you have to give birth for the first time and you’re going to give birth to your baby and she won’t even live for a day is pretty horrific,” Ms Johnston said.
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The brave woman had a message for others going through the same pain.
“There’s something actually really beautiful about it, and when your baby is born even though they’re not alive there’s still a sense of pride, connection and love,” she said.
“It takes a long time to heal, you don’t ever really heal from it but you can grow around it.”
The event will kick off at 7pm and tickets to the ball are $195.
To purchase a ticket to the ball, click here.