Starting January 1st, 2021 I will begin my journey of cycling 7300 miles (riding on average 20 miles a day) for the entire year to raise $5,000 for the Fetal Health Foundation. I ask that you please support my efforts with a pledge of as little as $0.02 a mile (~$150 for the year) or a flat donation by visiting https://pledgeit.org/lonniescycling2021. For everyone that makes a pledge or donation and who also has been affected by a fetal syndrome, I will dedicate a ride in their honor or memory. And feel free to join me in my challenge by cycling, running, or walking.

Please read below to learn why I am doing this challenge and why your support of my efforts will provide HOPE!

A dream of a family!

18 years ago Michelle and I were elated with our first pregnancy after a few years of trying to conceive. Our Christmas 2002 surprise? We were pregnant with identical twin daughters!

In early 2003, we were diagnosed with a very serious and often terminal pregnancy complication, Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. Our options were to terminate the pregnancy or let our daughters die in-utero. All our dreams of a family, the future memories of being warmed by their first smile, hearing their first word, seeing them off on the first day of school, and all the memories one dreams to experience with their family were being ripped away from us.

A few days later we found HOPE!

Quickly we came across our guardian angel, who was only one of a few fetal surgeons (at that time) and developed the field of operative fetoscopy (minimally invasive surgery in-utero on babies) who saved our daughters’ lives (full story). Today Aspen and Ashley are perfectly healthy, beautiful, and everything and more than Michelle and I could have ever dreamed of for a family. We need your help

The Fetal Health Foundation

200 families today, yes today, will lose their unborn child to a fetal syndrome!

No parent should ever have to accept that there is no hope to save their child’s life. As grateful parents of healthy identical twin girls, we are proud as founders to continue to lead the Fetal Health Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to hope for expectant parents who’ve received a fetal syndrome diagnosis.

Like us, families diagnosed with a fetal syndrome have only a few emotional days to find a life-changing medical treatment. Sadly, and far too often, they’ve been told there is no hope for their baby or babies to survive. In this terrifying moment, Fetal Health is there to provide emotional support and direct connection to leading fetal treatment centers and doctors around the world.

In 2006 we founded the Fetal Health Foundation, a 501©(3) non-profit charity that provides factual medical information on fetal syndromes, provides unconditional support to families dealing with these syndromes, provides advocacy and awareness around fetal syndromes, and through our Fetal Therapy Think Tank Program, which brings the world’s top medical, caregivers, researchers, and all stakeholders together in improving the outcomes of fetal syndrome/anomalies outcomes.

We hope you’ll join us, along with our inspirations, our daughters Aspen and Ashley, as we continue our efforts to make sure every family battling a fetal syndrome has HOPE. -Lonnie and Michelle Somers.