Support Group - for anyone affected by the death of a baby

These are the dates for the rest of the year:

Thursday 19th May 7.30pm - 9.30pm

Thursday 16th June 7.30pm - 9.30pm


After June we will be meeting on the third Sunday of the month.  Details to follow.















Held at Riverside Pavillion, Candy Street, Off Sugar Way/Oundle Road, Woodston, Peterborough, PE2 9RE.
 
Meetings are an informal opportunity to talk about the death of your baby or any issues arising from it to people who have experienced similar situations.   Please email sandspeterborough@gmail.com for further information or if you would like to chat to a befriender.

Sands Cake & Baked goods stall at Green Backyard Saturday 16th April

Come along if you can and support the cause.  We will be at the Green Back Yard Easter Craft Fair from 10am-4pm selling all kinds of delicious goods such as home made fudge, cakes, biscuits and flapjacks.  The Green Back Yard is next to KFC opposite the POSH ground on London Road.

Gig At Old Coach House In Market Deeping A Success

A huge thank you to Ady at the Old Coach House for letting us put the gig on and providing us with a PA for free.  Thanks also goes out to Gary Indiana Charlesworth, John Litchfield and Icons of the Brave for giving it their all.  The quality of the acts was remarked upon and it really was a great night.  Thanks also to Rachel Lawrence, Louise Tyler and Karen Milford for helping collect donations.  We managed to raise a grand total of £217.25 and plan to order some memory boxes for Peterborough Maternity Unit to give bereaved parents as they don't have any at present.

Fundraising

Planned fundraising events for the year are as follows:

25th March 2011 - 8PM onwards - Gig (featuring Siren, John Litchfield, Gary Charlesworth, Icons of the Brave) at the Coach House Pub in Market Deeping.

Steve Cross and Mark Cubbon to climb Ben Nevis.  Date TBC

Cake Stall at Green Back Yard Easter Craft Fair on April 16th 10am - 4pm  

We welcome any ideas anyone may have about how to raise money and awareness.

Raising Awareness

We have been working hard this month to raise awareness of the group and also of the issue of stillbirth and Sands work in general.  Following the very sad news that Amanda Holden's son was stillborn at 7 months I agreed to do an interview for the Mirror which I hope achieves these goals.  It's not easy to talk about personal experience in this way but if it does some good for other mums and dads then it is worth it.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2011/02/07/after-amanda-holden-s-son-is-stillborn-another-mum-tells-her-story-115875-22904562/

We have also been lucky enough to be included in the latest Cruse Bereavement Care newsletter which is circulated to bereavement support volunteers and bereavement health professionals.  Cruse work to support bereaved people so it is good to have this link between the two charities.

The Peterborough NCT have also been kind enough to put a link to us on their website which is great to signpost those who need our help.  They are also including an article about how those with live babies can support friends who have lost a baby and are featuring the story of Jack's stillbirth soon too.

We have also been getting the details of our meetings out by displaying posters in doctors surgeries, shops, workplaces etc.  If you would like to help spread the word we can email you a copy of our poster.

We are keen to work with Peterborough City hospital and have begun talks with them about how best we can support them and vice versa.

A really good article has been published in the Peterborough Evening Telegraph about our Sands group.

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/features/sands_care_and_support_for_couples_after_the_death_of_a_baby_1_2490868

Sands Support Group Meetings - For anyone affected by the death of a baby

Thursday 20th January 2011 - 7.30pm - 9.30pm

Thursday 17th February 2011 - 7.30pm - 9.30pm

Thursday 17th March 2011 - 7.30pm - 9.30pm

Thursday 21st April 2011 - 7.30pm - 9.30pm


Riverside Pavillion
Candy Street
Off Sugar Way/Oundle Road
Woodston
PE2 9RE

Some Poetry - Feel free to share any you have found helpful

For A Child Born Dead

What ceremony can we fit
You into now? If you had come
Out of this warm and noisy room
To this, there'd be an opposite
For us to know you by. We could
Imagine you in lively mood.

And then look at the other side,
The mood drawn out of you, the breath
Defeated by the power of death.
But we have never seen you stride
Ambitiously the world we know.
You could not come and yet you go.

But there is nothing now to mar.
Your clear refusal of our world.
Not in our memories can we mould
You or distort your character.
Then all our consolation is
That grief can be as pure as this.

-Elizabeth Jennings

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day.
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Christina Rossetti

These Shoes

I am wearing a pair of shoes.
They are ugly shoes.
Uncomfortable shoes.
I hate my shoes.
Each day I wear them, and each day I wish I had another pair.
Some days my shoes hurt so bad that I do not think I can take another step.
Yet, I continue to wear them.
I get funny looks wearing these shoes.
They are looks of sympathy.
I can tell in others eyes that they are glad they are my shoes and not theirs.
They never talk about my shoes.
To learn how awful my shoes are might make them uncomfortable.
To truly understand these shoes you must walk in them.
But, once you put them on, you can never take them off.
I now realize that I am not the only one who wears these shoes.
There are many pairs in this world.
Some women are like me and ache daily as they try and walk in them.
Some have learned how to walk in them so they don’t hurt quite as much.
Some have worn the shoes so long that days will go by before they think about how much they hurt.
No woman deserves to wear these shoes.
Yet, because of these shoes I am a stronger woman.
These shoes have given me the strength to face anything.
They have made me who I am.
I will forever walk in the shoes of a woman who has lost a child.

Author Unknown