Kathy Lette, best-selling author of Mad Cows and Foetal Attraction, has joined forces with VSO to launch Walk for Tabita, a series of UK walks designed to raise over £50,000 for women's health care in developing countries.
Walk for Tabita happens on Sunday 7th March - just before International Women's Day - and honours Tabita, a Sierra Leonean women who lost her baby because she did not have access to a trained midwife.
Tabita is just one of thousands of women that VSO midwives see each year. Like Tabita, many are forced to walk for days to reach a trained midwife - often without medication or assistance - and sadly often too late to save the unborn child.
Kathy Lette says: "Giving birth is stone age. It's prehistoric what happens to a woman in labour. During labour, if you ever had any doubt about the gender of God, then you realise that God is a bloke! Natural childbirth is a case of stiff upper labia.
"But if it's agonising and terrifying in the West, imagine the plight of women in the developing world. A woman dies every minute in childbirth due to a lack of midwives and medical support.
"Women should be each other's human wonder bras - uplifting, supportive and making each other look bigger and better. Let's support our less fortunate sisters by walking on March 7."
Tabita was given an emergency caesarean by VSO volunteer, Zoe Vowles, one of many midwives VSO sends abroad each year to help transfer vital midwifery skills to local communities. Sadly Tabita arrived too late to save the child however Zoe was able to save Tabita's life.
Zoe says: "Every woman, regardless of where she lives in the world, should have access to good maternal health care. Please sign up. Your involvement could prevent future heartache for women like Tabita."
Willing participants can either join one of ten organised walks, beginning at a gentle 5km, or organise one of their own with friends, families and colleagues. The walks are designed to be a social, fun day out. Participants are asked to fundraise and raise awareness of Tabita's story.
Organised walks are happening in Richmond Park, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cheshire, Cornwall,Devon, Exeter, East London, Lincoln, Lake District, Liverpool, Northamptonshire, Richmond Park, Westonbirt Arboretum, Worcestershire, Dorset, Cornwall, Manchester, Abergavenny, Shropshire, Smethwick, Stirlingshire Oxfordshire, Glasgow.
For more information and for details about individual walks please visit walkforvso.org.uk.
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