Health: Blackburn charity donates 100 ‘baby loss packs’ for bereaved parents to the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust

Volunteers from the Blackburn UK Trust - a non-profit organisation that helps to provide aid and relief to the poor - visited Pinderfields Hospital on Monday, January 23, to hand over the 'Adil Legacy Packs’ to staff.

The packs have been co-produced by the Trust alongside Maggies Stillbirth Legacy and aim to offer solace to mothers that have either lost a new born baby through a miscarriage, stillbirth or complications with pregnancy during or just after giving birth.

Sarah Bernasconi founded the Maggie’s Stillbirth Legacy after her baby daughter, Maggie Pearl, was stillborn in 2015. She said: “No parent should go through the pain of losing their

child but for those who do, we’ve provided something to help.

“It’s very, very important to me to raise awareness of stillbirth and the more I can do to help, the stronger and longer Maggie’s legacy will be.”

Blackburn UK Trust volunteer, Najma Patel, who tragically lost her son, Adil, worked with Sarah to put the care packs together. Najma said “We hope to help families at this difficult time when they are most in need of support. I would have welcomed this support and I hope this gesture can help them through the grieving process.”

The faith oriented packs include items such as a shroud, prayer beads, gift for the father, and a book entitled ‘A Gift for the Bereaved Mother’ and will be distributed between the trust's three sites including Dewsbury Hospital on Halifax Road, Pinderfields Hospital on Aberford road and Pontefract Hospital on Friarwood Lane.

Keith Ramsay, Chairman of The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We are extremely grateful to Blackburn UK Trust and to Maggie’s Stillbirth Legacy for this very generous donation.

"A donation in memory of someone special is a positive way to celebrate their life and is always very much appreciated by our teams who are dedicated to providing the best quality care to our patients.”

Habib Dadhiwala, lead volunteer on the baby loss packs at the Blackburn U.K. Trust, said: “We feel we needed to offer our hand to these mothers during the most difficult time and hope this act of kindness from all our donors can help the families through the grieving process.

“We thank the chaplaincy team for helping us achieve our goal of providing this pack which contains some valuable items that will no doubt help with the grieving process.

“It is really important for me as a volunteer to make sure all the hospitals can support their patients with these packs - it's about giving the parents what they need at the time of loss.

“There are also many long term benefits this pack will provide from a spiritual perspective as we know faith plays a huge role in dealing with such loss.

“We are providing these packs to as many hospitals as necessary and until every single NHS trust in the UK has been offered them, we are not going to stop working on this project.

“We want mothers to know that they are not alone in this situation.”

Over the past 17 years, through donors, volunteers and supporters, the Blackburn UK Trust has provided emergency aid and sustainable relief to thousands of disadvantaged people all around the World.

Their main aim is to provide basic essentials to the poor across the world, however their current projects focus on emergency relief, education, housing and taking care of orphans, widows and the disabled.

For more information about the Blackburn UK Trust and the baby loss packs, visit https://charity.blackburnuktrust.org/#