Sunday 18 December 2016

Thursday saw us host our first Charlies Christmas Memorial Evening.

It seems strange to say but we were really looking forward to the event.

Getting together with other bereaved families to give support and friendship especially at this time of year can have a real beneficial effect.

The evening started at 6.30pm but we got there earlier to set up and greet the children who were coming along to sing a song at the beginning of the evening.


We had bought a Christmas tree and some beautiful heart baubles, for families to write messages on, to hang on the tree.



Once the children had finished their song vicar Andy Myers said a few words of comfort to everyone and a fellow vicar did a reading.

We had placed an order of service and a keepsake for all the families to take away with them on the pews.



Andy then read out the names of all the 'angels' we had come to honour and as he read them out the families came up to light a candle. 
If a family had not been able to come along to the evening we lit a candle for them. It was very emotional but also lovely to see so many people coming together to honour their children.



During the evening, before we came into the church I was approached by Tracey Asquith, a lady we have come to know through her own loss and setting up of a Foundation Charity in memory of her son, Kyle. She said that she had a cheque that she wanted to give to us and she wanted to do it during the service. 

After all the candles had been lit I went up and said thank you to everyone who had come along and then invited Tracey up to pass over the cheque. 
We didn't know at this point how much the cheque was for. 
Tracey handed it to me and it took me a while before I could tell everyone how much it was for. When I looked at the amount it bought tears to my eyes, thinking that another charity could be so generous. 
They had donated a huge £500.
It still amazes me as I am writing it down now of their generosity. 
It also made us feel so proud that our 2 boys, Charlie & Kyle, have made such an impact on others lives.


Before we went into the vicarage I reminded the families that there were some baubles with beautiful card angel wings for them to write a message on and place on our tree.
When they had all been hung on the branches the tree looked amazing.


During the evening we had been selling raffle tickets, so as our final part of the event we asked the vicar to pull out all the winning tickets. We had been donated some amazing prizes and all the winners seemed to be really happy with theirs.

One of the prizes donated was 4 x breakfasts at No 28 Cafe in Middleton. The man who won it didn't live in the area so decided to give it to the vicar and asked him to give it to someone in the area that could really benefit from it. What a wonderful thing to do.

The evening had turned out to be a wonderful way for us all to come together to honour our babies and children as well as giving each other support.

The event never started out as one that would be a big fundraiser for us, but due to the generosity of The Kyle Asquith Foundation and the families that bought so many raffle tickets, we raised a massive £765.85.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped us make the night such a fantastic one. This time of year can be very hard for grieving families and coming together like we did can bring comfort and strength to each other. 

2016 has been such a great year for our charity and none of it would have been possible without the support and dedication we get from the families we work with, our trustees and our faithful supporters.










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