'Remembering our little angels'

A COLERAINE mother who has fundraised to provide memory boxes for the parents of stillborn babies at the Causeway Hospital was delighted to receive sponsorship from the domestic staff there.

The domestic staff of the hospital organised a fundraising night and presented Mandy Neill with 465 to provide more memory boxes for the little ones who are "born sleeping".

Mandy was moved to start the scheme when her own daughter Lily was born early in March of this year at just 17 weeks gestation at the Causeway Hospital.

Amid the family's deep grief at losing their "little angel", the Shellbridge Park mum put all her energy into providing memory boxes for any other parents who have to go through the same experience.

"Since giving birth to my angel and having to leave the hospital with next to nothing to keep and treasure of Lily, both myself and my husband and our families are trying to set up a charity to raise money to supply memory boxes for the hospital," said Mandy.

Mandy said she was "very pleased" with the donation from the domestic staff and said that the money would help to pay for next year's memory boxes.

"It was very upsetting to go to the hospital to collect the cheque from the domestic staff and to hear that since we presented the memory boxes on June 19th, four of them have been used already," said Mandy.

Mandy is also planning a balloon release on August 13th - the day that should have been little Lily's due date.

"I just want to do something positive rather than sit about wallowing on the day," she said.

"It will be an emotional day but we are releasing 100 balloons from Coleraine cemetery near to her resting place and each balloon will be tagged with a little message to remember all the little angels that are not forgotten.

"We will be releasing the balloons at 7.30pm and anyone is welcome to come along.

"I have only just put a post about it on our Facebook page Forever Our Angels and already 16 people have requested that we put tags on in memory of their little ones," she said.

You can find out more about Mandy's fundraising efforts by checking out her Facebook page.

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