Over the last week we have seen a sudden increase in the number of people signing our petition to the department of health asking for a coordinated package of aftercare for families following the loss of a baby. 

Whilst it makes us really positive to see the figures increase it is tinged with sadness because most of the people signing have either been through the loss of a baby or child, or knows someone. 

We have had some amazing comments added when people have signed, and the message we are getting is that there has been a real deficit in the provision of bereavement support for many many years. 
There appears to have been acknowledgement that there has been some improvements but these have been very small and not in  all areas of the UK.

It is very sad and annoying that the government and NHS has not already looked at this area of inadequacy in previous years. Part of me thinks that it is maybe because now it has become more acceptable to talk openly about the death of a child. 
In years gone it has always been seen as a taboo subject and something that people didn't want to know about.

Since starting Charlies Angel Centre I think we have all been shocked by the stories of inadequate care we have heard from other families. We had hoped we were an exception and had been unlucky to have had the experiences we had but we are hearing from families that have recently lost a child and are still being given sub standard support.

We will not give up our campaign to get improvements across the UK. We are determined to see a change to the support families receive and are actually starting to see small changes happening in our local area.

Please keep signing and sharing our petition to everyone you know. The more people talking about the subject the sooner we can see changes.


https://www.change.org/p/department-of-health-to-ensure-a-coordinated-package-of-aftercare-for-all-families-following-the-loss-of-a-baby-child-which-will-involve-midwives-gps-and-full-support-networks?recruiter=96559660&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

2015 was a fantastic year for us and we achieved so much 
We now provide...
Telephone & Email Support
A Community Support Group
Information & Support
Bereavement Counselling 
2016 is going to be even better, here are a few of our plans.
1..Purchasing a cuddle cot
2..Charity registration
3. Continued work with the bereavement liaison team
4..Development of our community support group
5..Fundraising ventures though the year 
6..Continue fighting for better aftercare for bereaved parents and families

Thank you for your support in 2015 and we hope this will continue in 2016 as always our website provides you with information and support plus much more

 http://www.charlies-angel-centre.org.uk/

We need you..
We need fundraisers whether you run, walk,swim, hold coffee mornings, anything to help us raise funds, we are a non funded charity and all the services we provide we have to fund ourselves, you can find out more on how you can help us at  http://www.charlies-angel-centre.org.uk/#!projects/c21kz

              

                23/4/2018

               sign here

               Charity Autumn Ball

               17/9/2016

Happy 3rd Birthday Charlie

I can hardly believe that today is Charlies 3rd birthday. It does not feel like three years since we lost this lovely little boy.

He was such a wanted little baby and had so many people waiting to give him hugs and show him the world.

Charlies mummy has been so inspirational to us over the last 3 years and has made a massive difference to the face of bereavement support both in Leeds and across the UK. 

Tonight Charlies family all got together to celebrate his 3rd birthday. Each year we have all got together to celebrate his short but amazing life.

This year we all went along to the Homemade Burger Co. and enjoyed a meal together. Following the meal we went back home to have our annual balloon release. 
Charlies 3 cousins, Rhiann, Amy & Mila always enjoy letting the balloons go and often want to attach things to be taken for Charlie to play with.

This years gift for everyone to take away with them was a packet containing 2 blue feathers and a breakdown definition of what Charlies name means.

I hope you are having a great birthday up in heaven with all your relatives and friends. 
We love and miss you every day.

Well Christmas is upon us.

The shopping has been done and the presents are being wrapped. 
The hubby is in the kitchen preparing for the dinner tomorrow.

This scene will be the same in thousands of homes across the world. 

But if you could just see a little more into some of these lives you would see the pain of having another Christmas without a loved one.

Everyone says that Christmas is about the family and getting together. What do those families do who no longer have their loved ones around them or with them.

Christmas can be a very lonely time for these families.

This is why Charlies Angel Centre runs 365 days a year, we know that grief doesn't take a holiday and that there will be families going through the trauma of losing their loved one during the festive season.

Please spare a thought for those families that you know who may be struggling. Just a quick call to say 'how are you?' can mean so much. Just knowing that someone is thinking about you can help a lot.

If you do know a family that are struggling and you don't know what to do to help please give them our website address or our telephone number. We are here 24 hours a day and are here to help.

T'is the season to be jolly.

For the last week this is all I have heard from people at work, kids, television and in all the shops.

The only problem is I really don't feel like being jolly at the moment. 

The only thoughts that have been going through my head is that we are having to arrange Charlies 3rd birthday celebration without him being with us to enjoy it.

I can't get out of my head the images of how Charlie should be here causing happy chaos ripping open his Christmas presents and playing with all his toys.

I know we all go out together and celebrate his short but amazing life and make memories that will last us a lifetime. However every single one of us would happily exchange everything we have to have Charlie here with us.

This year we have raised enough money to purchase a Cuddle Cot for our local maternity unit bereavement suite. 
The Cuddle Cots are so valuable to grieving families, giving them extra time to spend with their angels before leaving the hospital.

We think  it is fitting that we are looking at buying one around Charlie's birthday, it feel's like a very good present to be able to give to bereaved families in Charlies memory.

Charlies Angels Centre has teamed up with Shop4Charity to create a brand new fundraising opportunity for the charity just in time for Christmas.

Charlies-Angel-Centre is here to help and support anyone affected by the death of a baby or child, in as many ways as we possibly can.

Our website will always continue to be a main focus as a valuable resource for families after a child's death, but as time has moved on Charlies-Angel-Centre has grown too, and we now 
do so much work behind the scenes to improvebereavement care for parents and families who have lost there child.

Shop4Charity is a website set up to raise funds for good causes with over 20,000 gifts, many of which are licensed and include some of the worlds biggest brands such as Disney, Warner Bros and one of the biggest selections of football related products.

Every sale makes a minimum of 10% for the charity.

Ruth Curtis from the Charity had this to say about the new partnership "We think it is a lovely thing that Adam is doing, and a great way to give back to the community. The website is a lovely thing to do, and that is the kind of people we want to work with because it's all about working with people and giving something back. Adam is very keen on helping other people, which is something you don't see it much today. 

It's nice to find someone that wants to help.

Hopefully, we want to get as much funds as we can to help our charity and to promote what we're doing. 

We were set up as my step daughter lost her son Charlie when he was just 19 minutes old, and when we left hospital, there was no support for the family. We are hoping to set up a bereavement support centre in Leeds, and particularly aiming to set up a 24 hour phone line this year. We are petitioning for changes in the NHS  to provisions that are out there. 32,000 people in Leeds are waiting for bereavement support, and after talking to people it's a similar situation across the UK. We have been in touch with the Prime Minister, and he has passed our details onto the NHS because of the upcoming elections. But from this partnership, we hope to spread the word of what we're doing and help the families that need it most."

Adam Maddock from Shop4CharityUK said "We have already raised substantial sums for other charities and believe this is one of the quickest and easiest ways to donate to charity whilst finding a perfect gift for yourself or others. We are honoured to help this cause and really hope we can help raise as much funds as possible for them to meet their goals."

Doing your shopping this year and help the charity on 
http://charlies-angel-centre.shop4charity.co.uk/

For further information please contact Shop4CharityUK Charity 
Partnership Manger Keith Maddock on
Office: 01157831356 Mobile: 07734754267 Email: 
Keith@shop4charity.co.uk

This week has been an amazing week for us.

First of all we found out that someone has nominated Carrie for the Yorkshire Choice awards for Inspirational Individual of the Year. 
We know that Carrie is inspirational to all of her family and friends but to have someone else see that and put her forward for this award is fantastic.
Carrie never sees herself as an inspirational person, she just sees it as doing what needs to be done in Charlies honour.
What she doesn't see, that we do, is that it has been so difficult for her to keep going since she lost her special little boy. There have been days and weeks when all she wanted to do was hide away but she didn't. She was kept going by the memory of Charlie.
We would love it if you could go along to the voting site and cast a vote for Carrie. With everything she has had to go through she deserves to be seen for the inspirational person we know she is.

We then received the brilliant news that our charity had been chosen  by Liverpool Victoria Insurance as their charity to give a donation of £1000 to.

This all came about due to a lovely lady, Katie Dockerty, who works for Liverpool Victoria. Katie had helped us previously by donating items to us for us to sell to raise funds.

Katie then decided to nominate our charity to be considered for by work colleagues as a cause worthy of their donation.

Thank you does not seem a big enough way of expressing our gratitude.

This donation has meant that our Cuddle Cot Campaign fund is now so close to its target. 

We would love to be able to be in the position to purchase our first Cuddle Cot in time for Charlies birthday on December 29th, and this £1000 has bought this wish within reach.