Hull & East Yorkshire Sands HEY Stillbirth & Neonatal Death Charity
Hull and East Yorkshire Sands donation page
Fundraising for Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity
Story
Thank you so much for visiting the Justgiving page for Hull and East Yorkshire Sands, a local branch of the national charity Sands. All money donated to this page will be given to Hull and East Yorkshire Sands group for use in our local area. However, please note that Gift Aid raised through the donations to this page will benefit Sands work across the UK.
We will continually update this page with what our current plans are and what we have achieved locally.
We operate in various ways in Hull and East Yorkshire which you can read about below and also on our website: www.hull-sands.org.uk.
All our committee members are volunteers and as such are unpaid and so all donations go directly towards our work. Locally, we:
- offer monthly support meetings but also offer telephone, email and one to one support;
- offer bi-monthly support meetings for bereaved parents who are expecting or have a baby post loss and struggling with their conflicting emotions;
- work with local professionals to improve bereavement care locally and play an active part in the local “Reducing stillbirth” meetings;
- organise two memorial service each year, one on Father’s Day and one close to Christmas;
- organise a Christmas party for children who have lost a sibling through stillbirth or neonatal death;
- pay for regular bereavement care training for health professionals, including midwives and consultants who work at Hull Women & Children Hospital as well as a multi-disciplinary teams from a wider range of services, such as PND support, health visitors etc who may come in contact with bereaved families;
- pay for bereavement care training for all final year University of Hull midwifery students;
- fund places for the local bereavement midwife and her team at the annual Uncertainty and Loss in Maternity and Neonatal care conference;
- fund places for the local bereavement midwife and her team at MBRRACE (Mothers and Babies: Reducing risk through audits & confidential enquiries across the UK) conferences;
- pay for and organise small knitted nests and outfits for babies who are too small for moses baskets and newborn baby clothes;
- provide new, much more modern, blessing cards for use by the chaplain in the Hospital.
Our current initiatives are:
- refurbishing the second bereavement room in Hull Women & Children's Hospital with new bed, bedside cabinets, mattress and further bedding to bring it in line with the refurbishment of the main bereavement room completed in 2015;
- providing further bereavement care training to professionals in our area and also to midwifery students in their final year at Hull University;
- looking at creating a memorial garden in the grounds of Hull Women & Children’s Hospital.
- provide Hull Women & Children’s Hospital with a library of bereavement care training and support material.
We have completed the following initiatives over the last three years:
- campaigned to get the local NHS Trust to employ a dedicated bereavement midwife and won their backing after an 18 month long process. The bereavement midwife started her role in February 2017;
- paid for bereavement care training courses for midwives, consultants at Hull Women & Children's Hospital in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and 2017;
- provided bereavement care training to 3rd year midwifery students at Hull University in 2015, 2016 and 2017;
- funded 20 midwives to attend the "Uncertainty and Loss in Maternity and Neonatal care conference in September 2016;
- paid for befriender training for three bereaved parents in the last three years who have asked to join our committee and befriending team and are now one of our team offering support in our area through our Sands group;
- refurbished the bereavement room in Hull Women & Children's Hospital with new bed, bedside cabinets, mattress and further bedding;
- created a "Making memories" poster for both bereavement rooms at the Hospital;
- paid for bereavement care training to doulas across Hull in March 2015;
- opened a baby memorial garden at Endsleigh Centre in Hull (sadly this is having to be relocated at present due to the Centre announcing closure - please see our website or Facebook page for any updates on relocation);
- provided new bedding, memory cards for digital cameras, kettle, crockery for use in the bereavement room at Hull Women & Children's Hospital;
- raced baby’s ashes for parents who did not know what happened to their baby’s ashes and supported the parents through this emotional journey;
- paid for bereavement care training for 20 midwives, consultants at Hull Women & Children's Hospital in the autumn of 2014;
- support Abbie's Fund through an annual donation for two years;
- paid for all clay kits within the Abbie's Fund memory boxes which are given to Hull Women & Children's Hospital in 2014 and partly 2015. In discussions with Abbie's Fund this has now ceased so as to maximise the money spent locally by the two charities working together to support bereaved parents. This may commence again in the future if Abbie's Fund requires our financial support.
Thank you for your continued support. If you have any suggestions on what you would like to see happen locally, please contact us on admin@hull-sands.org.uk.