BEREAVED DAD TO TAKE ON TWO EXTREME CHALENGES WITHIN ONE WEEK IN 2025 IN MEMORY OF HIS STILLBORN DAUGHTER
Ben Moorhouse (41) of Halifax will be taking on two colossal extreme challenges within the space of one week in 2025.
On July 12th, 2025, Ben will take on his next extreme challenge walk when he will walk from the Angel of the North in Gateshead to the Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre and Tommy’s rainbow clinic at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Manchester. Along with his support team Ben will walk the 120 miles nonstop and with no sleep day and night to Manchester finishing the following day.
The following Saturday Ben will then head to the Greek Island of Rhodes and just six hours after landing on July 20thth during the height of summer he will take on the colossal task of taking on the steep mountain road of Prophet Elias Monastery in Faliraki. Ben will be taking on the mountain road a total of 50 times.
The monastery of Prophet Elias is built on the top of the mountain above the beach of Anthony Quinn, a picturesque monastery with the most imposing views you can meet in Faliraki as it is built in the highest part of the area.
Ben has already made history on the Greek island of Rhodes when in August 2021 he became the only person to walk around the full perimeter of the island nonstop – a total of 150 miles in 42 hours. This August he became the first person to walk the 300 steps of Tsambika Monastery a total of 100 times in just fifteen hours.
Ben has set himself a target of £10,000 with all funds going direct to Professor Heazell and his team to support research to help save babies’ lives.
In October 2018 Bens daughter Kallipateira was stillborn at 38 weeks of pregnancy in Calderdale and the couple then experienced a miscarriage in May 2019 at 9 weeks of pregnancy. Kallipateira’s death was fully preventable.
Ben and Gaynor launched their own charity to help save babies lives through research and support other parents who have experienced the death of a baby.
Following the stillbirth of their daughter and miscarriage they knew if they wanted to have the best chance of another child with a better outcome, they must be cared for by Professor Alexander Heazell of the Tommy’s rainbow clinic and Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre in Manchester.
On May 23rd, 2020, Ben and partner Gaynor Thompson gave birth to their Rainbow baby boy Apollon in Manchester.
Apollon survived due to the love and specialist care from Professor Heazell and his team. The full pregnancy was kept a secret from family and friends.
To help save babies’ lives nationally in the UK Professor Heazell and his team are now the main beneficiary of The Kallipateira Moorhouse Foundation.
Ben says “Every extreme challenge I take on is very different in its own right and next year’s two extreme challenges will be a huge physical and mental challenge. To take on two events in the space of one week will be demanding and taking on the second one just hours after landing is going to be tough going. I am sure my friends in Faliraki will bring me an ice-cold Greek Frappe to keep me going! The mountain road has no shade at all and I will be in this all day straight off a plane with no time to climatize even just a little bit. I am determined to once again show that through love and a reason why anything can be achieved.
Every day in the UK there are on average eight babies stillborn and many of these deaths could have been prevented. These are beautiful fully developed babies who should be alive. As a grieving dad who each day feels the pain of Kallipateira’s devastating death I must now raise more vital funds for Professor Heazell and his team to support research so that other families nationally don’t have to experience the pain that we do every day. The biggest challenge I face is not extreme challenges but raising the money because the subject of stillbirth will always be a taboo subject. In all the years of taking on extreme challenges I have never reached my target. To reach my fundraising target in 2025 would mean the world to me. “
I would like to ask the media and public to please support me in my quest to reach my target in 2025.
Professor Alexander Heazell, Director of the Tommy’s Stillbirth Research Centre, said: “All of us at the Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre are in awe of Ben’s commitment to fundraising for stillbirth research. Ben’s support has already enabled us to study parents ‘experiences of pregnancy after loss and to demonstrate the positive impact of Rainbow Clinic. Your ongoing efforts will help us start new projects to help prevent stillbirth and improve care for parents after a baby dies.
Dignity Funerals are the proud headline sponsor of the extreme challenge walk.
Stuart Cox, Head of Public Affairs at Dignity, said:
“As a socially responsible business Dignity is delighted to continue our support for the Kallipateira Moorhouse Foundation through our Lawrence Funeral Directors branch in Halifax.
We see the value of the work that the Foundation does, and we witness Ben’s inspiring enthusiasm for fundraising. We all wish him the best of luck with his latest challenges.”
Ben can be supported at