Project Support
May 29, 2013
Local charity, Harry & Co is celebrating after raising in excess of £1,500 at its annual memorial ‘Angels Walk’ around Warrington, which was this year sponsored by David Wilson Homes North West’s North West Community Fund community initiative.
Despite the wet weather, more than 90 people turned up to show their support for the Warrington-based charity, which raises funds for the development and maintenance of the maternity bereavement services at Warrington Hospital.
The North West Community Fund scheme donated £500 to the event to cover the cost of refreshments at three locations and balloons, which were let off at each of the dedicated baby memorial gardens: Forget Me Not Baby Garden in Warrington cemetery, Rosebud Baby Garden in Fox Covert and Sweet Dreams Baby Garden in Walton Lea crematorium. As part of the sponsorship, Harry & Co also received printed T-shirts in a variety of adults and children’s sizes which were sold for £5 on the day to raise further funds.
The charity, which has been running for almost three years, has to-date raised more than £20,000 to support two family rooms on the labour ward and neo-natal special care department. These facilities provide parents and families of still born babies, or babies that are lost within the few hours of birth, the opportunity to stay with their new-born as long as they need to, making them as comfortable as possible in the most tragic of circumstances.
The money raised from this year’s ‘Angels Walk’ will be used to establish an on-line support forum for parents whose babies have died during birth. In addition, a resource library will be set up so midwives can lend literature, specific to baby loss, to parents to help with the grieving process.
To ensure that all the money raised is used where it is needed most and is benefiting as many people as possible, two midwives are appointed on Harry & Co’s trustee board.
Kate Tinker, Co-founder of Harry & Co, comments: “We cannot thank the North West Community Fund scheme enough for this donation. The day was a massive success again and despite the wet weather, the atmosphere was not dampened. Each year the walk gets bigger and bigger and we would like to thank everyone that joined us on the walk – which is just short of 10 miles.”
Steve Jackson, North West Community Fund Project Coordinator at David Wilson Homes North West, adds: “Harry & Co has already achieved so much in just three years and we are delighted to have supported their annual event this year. The charity benefits so many people and helps support them through what is an extremely difficult time.
“Through the North West Community Fund scheme we are committed to supporting and developing the communities in which we build and it gives us great pleasure to support this worthwhile charity based in Warrington, the home of our flagship development, Chapelford Village.”
