Coatbridge charity Baby Loss Retreat collected an award for its work in supporting bereaved parents at a charity ceremony in Leeds.
The organisation won the “most valuable contribution” prize at the annual ceremony run by the Charlie’s Angel Centre Foundation, which helps parents and families who have suffered loss.
Baby Loss Retreat has also benefited from a grant of £9360 from the National Lottery’s awards for all programme, which will be used to support its work in providing short breaks for parents who have been affected by stillbirth or neonatal death.
Charity founders Julie and Bryan Morrison travelled to Leeds for the awards ceremony along with fundraising volunteers John Mullaney, Stacey Ross and Anthony Dunlop.
Julie told the Advertiser: “When we were announced as the winners, I didn’t take it in for about two minutes!
“There were quite a few nominees in our category and I didn’t think we’d win, but people had put our name forward and we were really pleased to earn the award.
“We hope it can help raise the profile of the charity as the whole idea is that we want to expand our work and go UK-wide.
“We’ve had good feedback and just want the charity to be noticed as much as possible, both locally and further afield.”
Baby Loss Retreat’s lottery funding is being used to support its programme of respite breaks, provided for recently bereaved parents.
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A total of 17 families have benefited so far from the charity’s breaks at a cabin at Loch Lomond and Julie hopes the charity will be able to begin fundraising in the near future for premises of its own.
She said: “The lottery funding is fantastic for us; it’s used for accommodation and the grant we’ve been given is keeping us going for two years.
“The demand depends on different times of year; it can be quiet around Christmas, but then there’s quite a busy spell between March and June and we can be sending about five families per month away at that time.
“It’s great to have that funding for the respite breaks, and now we hope to start fundraising for premises.”
The charity also recently received a welcome £300 donation from Angel of Love and Light spiritualist church, which meets in Coatbridge, and Julie added: “They’ve always been supportive of the charity and this amazing donation means a lot.”
Shawhead couple Julie and Bryan established Baby Loss Retreat, for those affected by miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death, after tragically losing baby daughter Erin Elizabeth in July 2003 when she was stillborn at 37 weeks.
They send families who have recently experienced baby loss to tranquil surroundings for much-needed breaks as they grieve, and also run a local bereavement group.
For more information on the charity, see www.babylossretreat.org.uk , follow @babyloss1980 or find the charity on Facebook.
