WATCHING The People’s Strictly last week, and sobbing at the stories of the fantastic folk who have been selected to appear, a chord was struck with something going on in our house.

The six participants in this show, a Comic Relief version of Strictly Come Dancing, are normal people – and Strictly superfans - who have undergone personal challenges, challenges which have not prevented them from getting out there and getting on with their lives.

One lovely man, who’d lost his son to meningitis and gone on to raise thousands of pounds for the Meningitis Research Foundation, explained that he’d been inspired by the popular quote “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

From his mouth, it took on such weight and significance, and I couldn’t help but shed a tear.

Our own recent tragedy, the death of our son due to a late miscarriage, has inspired my other half to get out there and do some rain dancing of his own.

Our storm hasn’t passed quite yet, due to the fact that, when we attended hospital for a report on our baby’s passing, we were told that my blood tests have revealed that I have an autoimmune disorder, a condition which will require further investigation and future treatment.

Personally, it was another blow, especially when I am forced to process that my own body was perhaps more instrumental in what happened in October than we had previously realised.

But my husband has decided to get back in the ring in the meantime, and run the Reading Half Marathon in aid of Sands, the national charity for Stillbirth And Neonatal Death.

Basingstoke Hospital has a fantastic Sands Suite, where parents can go through their experience in private, guided by a bereavement midwife, and, having benefited from the existence of such a facility, we now want to give something back.

In addition, as I have mentioned previously, the Farnborough branch of Sands – which covers Basingstoke - supplies all parents with a memory box containing photographs, handprints and footprints.

It also contains helpful literature and is given out completely free of charge.

The members of Farnborough Sands welcomed me with open arms to their group sessions and to their private Facebook page, and I have been humbled and inspired by the amazing people I have met.

Their stories are terrible, their strength absolutely incredible, and I have taken great comfort from the support that I know is there, any time that I should need to reach out for it.

These are the women I can say anything to, no matter how bad, as they have been to that cliff face and stared into that abyss.

Our experience opened my eyes to many things, including the wonderful work that Sands does.

We plan to, as much as we can, support its vital work so that it will always be there for anyone else who might need it too.