Melissa Gurr, a midwife at Kettering General Hospital (KGH), will take on the monumental task of cycling from Goa to Hampi in aid of the hospital’s fundraiser for a new bereavement suite.

A midwife at KGH since 2005, Melissa has previously conquered routes including Vietnam to Cambodia and another in India for MND last year.

On November 12, she will set off to India before beginning the 405km journey, sporting a new bespoke tutu.

Melissa said: “It’s really hot and it is very humid so I know that it’s not an easy challenge to do having been before. Luckily for me I’m very stubborn, which I find has got me through quite nicely before. I’m determined to make every single kilometre.

Melissa has been a midwife at KGH since 2005

placeholder image — Melissa has been a midwife at KGH since 2005

“If I’m doing a challenge it needs to be a challenge, not just going away for a holiday.

“People have said ‘would you jump out of an aeroplane again’ but that’s not a challenge because I’ve already done it once, so I’d be taking the mickey taking people’s money for doing it again.

“If I can make it from London to Paris, I can definitely do whatever I set my mind to."

The journey over five days will stretch across the south of India from the state of Goa, to the town of Hampi in the Vijayanagara district of the country. Melissa admits that the opening leg of the journey will be ‘very hilly’, but has deliberately refrained from knowing too much more beforehand as she hopes to ‘face it as it is’ and not fear it too much before she begins.

Her fundraising efforts have taken her all over the world including Paris, India, Vietnam and Cambodia

Melissa has taken on outlandish challenges in aid of Twinkling Stars before, including jumping from an airplane from 13,000 feet, and cycling from London to Paris.

Her fundraiser is currently sitting at £1,300, which Melissa is ‘eternally grateful’ for, and she hopes to raise as much as possible for the charity.

Twinkling Start Appeal was set up to help raise funds to build a new bereavement suite at the hospital, as the current facility is within the labour suite itself, which Melissa says is an issue incredibly close to her heart.

She added: “We can do the very best we can using the facilities we’ve got, but our facilities are not suitable. We need people to have their separate private family space where they can mourn as a family with facilities that support that.

“It breaks your heart how strong and courageous and amazing these families are. They constantly amaze me with their strength and I want us to give them the world, and all we need to do to give them the world is to give them the privacy to grieve in private.”

Kettering General Hospital’s lead bereavement midwife, Lisa Drummond, said: “Each year we care for up to 100 families who suffer the heartbreak of losing their baby.

“This is an extremely upsetting and emotional time for families who may have come to hospital expecting the joy of childbirth – and have to leave with empty arms.

“While we work very closely and supportively with parents in this situation we know that our facilities really let us down and we want to change that.”

You can support Melissa’s amazing efforts by donating to her fundraiser here.