A MAN will be swimming from Old Harry Rocks to The Needles in the Isle of Wight for a baby loss charity after he and his wife lost their child through miscarriage.

Dan Lovett, 34, described being ‘over the moon’ when he and his wife, Sarah Lovett, 33, discovered they were expecting their first baby.

However, at their first scan a heartbeat could not be found and were told they had suffered from a ‘silent miscarriage’.

He added: “Which felt especially cruel as there were no signs anything was wrong with our baby.

“Our worlds collapsed around us, and it felt like a huge wave had hit us and flipped everything upside-down.”

Dan said that during their ‘darkest time’ they were supported by SPRING, a charity supporting parents and relatives through baby loss.

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Both Dan and Sarah work with children and young people, through Dan’s role as a boat building lecturer at Bournemouth and Poole College and Sarah’s job as a mental health practitioner for the NHS.

“It’s been life changing for me and Sarah because for a long time, people would come to us to share their problems, but we’d never been in a situation like this ourselves.

“It gave us a safe space to talk about things that we hadn’t talked about between each other.

“It sort of gives you hope to sort of dream again rather than feeling stuck and lost.”

Dan explained that due to Sarah’s job, working in primary schools and colleges, it was difficult for her to return to work, but SPRING taught the pair to be ‘kinder to themselves’.

During their sessions, Dan noticed people attempting to raise money for the charity and decided to organise his ‘big swim’ to repay the help they received.

“I thought I can’t help them through doing therapy but one thing I know I can do is swim,” he said.

He will be swimming from Old Harry Rocks in Studland to The Needles in Isle of Wight, Sarah’s home town.

The 25km challenge is predicted to take between six and 10 hours, depending on sea conditions, and aims to take place at the end of the month.

His swim is also raising money for Myeloma UK, in support of Sarah’s auntie, Jo Mowlom, who has been battling multiple myeloma.

Dan has already raised £3000 of his £10k target and donations can be made on the ‘give wheel’ website, titled ‘Old Harry Rocks to The Needles - Swimming 25km(ish) for 25 years of support’.