Baby loss stories behind the miles.
Marathons for Miracles follows a marathon challenge across England through interviews with people connected to pregnancy loss and complex family journeys. Its episodes move slowly through scans, hospital rooms, decisions, and race weekends, keeping the fundraising cause tied to lived experience.
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Marathons for Miracles uses endurance running as a structure for conversations that would otherwise be easy for society to avoid. The format is simple. A county marathon is paired with a guest whose life has been touched by baby loss, miscarriage, infertility, TFMR, premature birth, or neonatal care. From there, the show works slowly. Stories are usually told in order, beginning with early signs, scans, calls, hospital admissions, medical choices, and the impossible stretch of waiting for news. The result is intimate without being sentimental. Bobby’s episode around Phoebe lingers on birth and goodbye arriving almost together, and on how Felix gave daily shape to life after loss. Jenny’s Derbyshire conversation gives space to the language of TFMR, including the difficulty of calling something a choice when the circumstances are so stark. Finn’s Cambridgeshire episode brings the subject close to the interviewer’s own history of miscarriage and Poppy’s birth. Ciaran’s Bedfordshire conversation makes male infertility and mental health impossible to sideline. Edwina’s Lancashire story moves through premature birth, hospital space, labour decisions, and the later decision to stop trying. Leanne’s Nottinghamshire episode shifts the angle, describing neonatal care, palliative support, keepsakes, hospice nurses, and the small practical acts that help families make memories when time is short. Those medical details are handled as human detail. A C-section list, a transport team, a heartbeat recording, or a sibling book becomes part of how a family survives the day. The show also has an unmistakably practical rhythm. It talks about routes, Sunday runs, fundraising pages, Tommy’s shirts, friends turning up, and the awkward comedy of long challenges. That keeps the series from floating above the people in it. It is grave, but not airless. It can be warm, halting, and occasionally dry in the way real conversations are when people are trying to say something unbearable without making it theatrical. Marathons for Miracles stands out because the athletic feat never replaces the stories. The running gives each episode a place, a week, and a reason to gather, while the conversations keep returning to the families behind the miles.
Made for: For listeners affected by baby loss, miscarriage, fertility struggles, TFMR, premature birth, or neonatal care, and for friends or family trying to understand those experiences with more care. It also suits people drawn to endurance fundraising when the challenge is grounded in real stories rather than spectacle.
What sets it apart: The show ties each conversation to a specific marathon leg, giving grief a place, a week, and a community around it. Its strength is the combination of chronological personal testimony, practical medical detail, and fundraising momentum for Tommy's.
Across 39 weeks and 39 marathons in the 39 historic counties of England, Olly Brown runs alongside people with personal connections to baby loss, miscarriage, and complex pregnancy journeys. In each episode, he sits down with a runner to talk openly about their story — what they’ve been through, what brought them to the start line, and why this cause matters to them.Each episode is released in the same week as that runner’s marathon, allowing listeners to follow the journey in real time — meeting the people behind the miles as the challenge unfolds.These are honest conversations about loss, resilience and showing...
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Personal testimony and informed medical detail give pregnancy loss a clear, compassionate place within Health & Fitness.
Marathons for Miracles turns a county-by-county running challenge into a series of careful conversations about pregnancy loss, infertility and premature birth.
Olly Brown is running 39 marathons; you may stay for what people tell him about loss.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
NICU care, baby loss, and the keepsakes that matter.
This episode uses the Nottinghamshire stop to look closely at NICU work, with Leanne speaking from the care side rather than as a visitor. It stays with the hardest realities of end-of-life decisions for babies whose illness may not be survivable, while keeping families, timing,…
A plainspoken account of baby loss, told with care and without smoothing the edges.
This episode sits within a marathon a week run for Tommy's, but the real focus stays on baby loss, not pace or spectacle. Bobby's account is plainspoken and affecting.
A blunt, humane look at fertility struggles, self-blame, and the silence around loss.
Marathons for Miracles week 12 heads to Bedfordshire and stays with fertility struggles, miscarriage, and the self-blame Kieran of Nexus Fertility and the Male Fertility Podcast describes as pushing him close to the edge.
A Lancashire baby-loss story shaped by labor decisions, hospital logistics, and the blunt detail of a night that did not go to plan.
At the Lancashire stop on the marathon route, the episode narrows to labor choices, hospital logistics, and baby loss. Tommy's remains the charitable center, while Edwina's team effort gives the week its local shape and keeps attention on the ward, the timing, and the baby's…
A clear, restrained look at TFMR, delivery, and the logistics behind baby-loss fundraising.
Jenny's story gives Marathons for Miracles a practical, grounded focus: a 12-week scan, just over a week of waiting, and the choice around TFMR, all set against a weekend trip to Derbyshire.
Jonquilyn Hill chases one listener question per episode to the experts who can answer it.
Three hosts and psychologist Dr Emily talk vulnerability, therapy, and imperfection with guests.
Fearne Cotton interviews guests like Boy George and Bryony Gordon about mental health and identity.
Dr. Joy Harden Bradford pairs therapy insight with Black TV recaps, maternal health, and history.
Week 17 lands in Nottinghamshire.
Marathons for Miracles reaches Brighton for week 16, the first proper marathon event in the 2026 run.
Host introduces a marathon challenge to raise funds for baby loss charity Tommy's, running with friend Faye in Shropshire.
Alice shares her journey of multiple pregnancy losses and her work with Tommy's charity during a marathon fundraising challenge.
Host introduces the Marathons for Miracles challenge and welcomes Finn, who shares his experience with TFMR and baby loss, as they prepare to run together in Cambridgeshire.
Bedfordshire brings the run close to home.
Week 11 sends Marathons for Miracles to Lancashire with Edwina at the center.
Episode 10 marks double figures, and the host pauses on that for a moment.
Tom, a university friend of host Ollie, describes his wife's miscarriage and the "numbers game" approach he took to conception: zinc tablets after a low count and a thousand ovulation sticks.
Robin and Annabel share their experience of having a premature baby and spending 86 days in the NICU, as part of a marathon fundraising challenge for Tommy's charity.
A podcast episode where host Ollie interviews Lucy about her experience with twin loss and long-term grief, and her participation in a marathon fundraiser for Tommy's charity.
Jonny shares his journey through IVF and recurrent miscarriage, leading to his involvement in a marathon challenge to raise funds for Tommy's charity.
A podcast episode where host Wally interviews Adam about his experience with miscarriage during military service and men's mental health, as part of a marathon fundraising series for Tommy's charity.
A runner shares her story of miscarriage and grief as she prepares to run marathons across England to raise funds for Tommy's charity.