With 17 babies stillborn or dying shortly after birth every day in the UK, local bereaved grandparents Mike and Jane Constantinou are on a mission to provide support to fellow bereaved families.
Working with Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, Mike and his wife Jane, have launched the Warrington Sands Group and are inviting people who live locally, and who have been affected by the death of a baby, to come along to support meetings.
The grandparents have been offering support, under the umbrella of another Sands group in Chester, for over a year. But now Group has now officially launched in its own right and will hold its first support meeting on 13th November from from 7.30pm.
Meetings will then continue to be held on 11 December 2014, 8 January 2015, 12 February 2015, 12 March 2015, 9 April 2015 at Station Coffee, 686 Knutsford Road, Latchford, Warrington, WA4 1JW.
The Group hopes that parents and families from Warrington, Halton and the surrounding areas will find great benefit from the new support group.
When the couple’s daughter Laura’s baby boy died in 2012, they felt it was important for her to meet other people who knew how she was feeling. Jane attended a Sands group in Manchester and received fantastic support.
There was nothing like this in the Warrington area so after some time had passed, careful consideration and thinking of what help she could offer, Jane decided to set one up. She then started the process, along with her husband.
Mike Constantinou, Chair of Warrington Sands, said:
“As grandparents you face the grief two fold, you want to protect your child, but you have to watch them go through this awful experience, and help and be there and support them, and you also have your own grief to deal with.
“We hope that our Group offers families a safe environment to talk and is about knowing that through all of the pain and heartache, you are not alone, there are others who know exactly how you are feeling, and that there are people there for when you need them.”
As a Sands Group it has achieved a lot already as they are now part of the Maternity Bereavement Services at Warrington Hospital.
For more information about support meetings, to seek support or to offer to help run this Group please contact Warrington Sands on helpline: 07454 100951 or email: warringtonsandsgroup@gmail.com.
ENDS
Notes to editors
For more information, please contact Natalie Cooper, Sands Press & PR Officer, on 0203 598 1959, e: Natalie.cooper@uk-sands.org.