Please donate whatever you can to The Compassionate Friends, a charity that supports and helps bereaved parents who have lost a child.  We never knew that such a charity existed until we found we needed their help.  Losing a child is the worst thing that can happen, so please help The Compassionate Friends to help other bereaved parents.  No parent should have to contemplate a future without their beloved child.

Simon and Vineeta Chiles, Alexander’s proud parents would like to tell you a little bit more about our beautiful son Alexander; born 26 December 2010, he died suddenly on 21 October 2012. 

Alexander Benjamin Chiles arrived 3 weeks early on Sunday 26 December 2010; he was born via Caesarean.  Alexander weighed just 4 lb 10 oz; he was small but perfect, and curious and alert about the world around him from the start.  Simon’s DVD recording of Alexander’s first moments show him looking curiously around the delivery room, taking everything in.

Alexander was a beautiful, happy and always smiling little boy.  He was bathed in love and attention, and his confidence and outgoing nature was a reflection of how loved and secure he felt.  In the last few months of Alexander’s life his language skills were growing at a wonderful rate.  We can hear him saying ‘Sit down Mummy, sit down Daddy’ in a way that made our hearts glow.  He loved to laugh and had a wonderful cheeky, mischievous and gregarious personality that was starting to really develop.

Alexander loved women and was a real lady's man from a very young age; he was always flirting with women, from our family doctor, to pretty women on the train, to baristas in our local coffee shops.  Wow he really knew how to charm the ladies. We used to just watch in amazement.  What was interesting is how people always seemed to be drawn to him, wherever we went people would stop and coo over him or try and interact with him.

Saturday 20 October started as a normal Saturday.  We had a great day, we’d taken Alexander to his first Children’s Concert – we went to see the Channel 5 Children’s programme Milkshake in Dorking Surrey.  He loved it! Our bedtime routine was the same, change into pyjamas and story-time on Mummy & Daddy’s bed.  He was full of beans and scampering over our bed as usual.  We put him in his baby sleep grobag and put him in his cotbed at the usual time, after our usual goodnight kisses and cuddles. 

Simon and I had a normal evening in front of the TV but when we came upstairs and I did my usual check on Alexander before I went to bed, we found him not breathing.  Simon and I immediately started doing CPR and called an ambulance, and that is when our world as we knew it came crashing down.  Both the ambulance team and the specialist Children’s A&E team at East Surrey Hospital worked very hard to resuscitate Alexander, but tragically our wonderful little son’s heart could not be started. 

We are heartbroken and cannot believe that our beautiful son has left our lives.  However The Compassionate Friends have been so helpful to us in these very difficult days.  The staff and volunteers have an intimate knowledge of losing a child since all of them have experienced such loss themselves.  They have therefore been in a unique position to understand our sadness and provide support to us.  Please therefore donate generously.

Thank you for your support.

Much Love

Simon and Vineeta Chiles

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