When the person becomes a memory, the memories become a treasure.

I am so lucky to be part of a fantastic Care After Death (CAD) Team at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB). The integrated Care After Death team provides families with practical support including coordination of paperwork when a patient dies, signposting families to bereavement support and ensuring we care for patients who have passed.

As a team we would love to be able to offer to take handprints and locks of hair, for all families’ loved ones at their request; currently, we can only do so for children and suicide deaths with thanks to charities that provide us with these resources. However, we would like to offer this wider, to all families and give these families treasured memories that mean so much.

To enable us to do this we need resources such as hand printing kits, ‘organza bags’ and memory boxes and other resources that are needed to ensure the best service possible for families.

To do this Gareth Hughes and I are jumping out of a plane, completing a tandem skydive. It is (only!) 12,000 feet which consists of a 45 second free fall... did I mention I am totally scared of heights!! Even thinking about doing this makes me queasy... however, you can't ask people to donate if you’re not willing to do something challenging, right?

When I was twenty years old my son died at six weeks old unexpectedly... still to this day, I have many memories of him; the things I treasure most are his tiny handprints and a lock of his hair which mean the world to me. I know first-hand how important this is for families.

Please donate if you can... even if it’s to see Gareth or I get pushed out of a plane (because they will definitely have to push me!) that’s okay.
Every little penny and pound helps us to achieve this for families... and that's ultimately what it is all about ❤.

Thank you for reading this, your time and your donation.