On 31st December 2023, our twin sons Robert and Matthew were born sleeping. We were fortunate to be well supported by family, friends, colleagues and the bereavement team at the Liverpool Women's Hospital, but even so we were struggling. I carried a lot of guilt and shame, and I found it almost impossible to talk to people in my life about how I was feeling, what I needed, and how they could help me.

Fortunately, I found the charity Love, Jasmine. Love, Jasmine is a small Merseyside-based charity which provides all kinds of support to bereaved parents and parents whose child has received a terminal illness; this includes parents of children who have died after 20 weeks gestation.

What I needed was someone to talk to, and so Love, Jasmine provided me with bereavement counselling - free of charge, for as long as I needed it. For months, I met every week with Heather; over time, this went down to fortnightly and ultimately monthly. Heather helped me talk about every detail of what had happened, helped me realise how much anger I was carrying towards myself, and helped me come up with strategies for talking to friends and families or coping with social events I dreaded. She was also invaluable as we tried and ultimately succeeded to get pregnant again, and helped me process the strange mixture of emotions I felt during the pregnancy with Martha. I have not moved on from the loss of the boys and I never will, but the help Love, Jasmine provided has made it much easier for me to talk about them, think about them, and know how to stay connected to them. I now feel much more confident about parenting Martha in a way that honours her brothers.

Unfortunately, Love, Jasmine now needs a significant amount of financial support. Until recently, it has largely been funded by a National Lottery grant, but its application for a new grant was unsuccessful. It has already cut back the support it offers - other people will no longer be able to receive the counselling I received - and needs to raise £90,000 to continue to provide its current services.

For that reason, Martha and I will be joining other families supported by Love, Jasmine for a sponsored 8-mile walk in Liverpool on 28th June. (I am crossing my fingers that that day Martha will need some very long naps - we go for walks most days but never that long!) If you can support us, please do consider it - bereaved parents in Merseyside (and everywhere!) really benefit from the specialist support they provide, and it would be heartbreaking for the existing help to be lost.