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Plea:

In 2014, 3,564 babies were stillborn or died shortly after birth. This is 10 babies a day that are stillborn from 24 weeks, and a further 684 babies a day that are miscarried under 24 weeks. Whilst running Cherished Gowns it has become apparent to me that babies are considered family members from conception not just 24 weeks of gestation. Every parent who wishes to dress their baby should be able to do so, regardless of their weight, size or gestation.

In September 2014 I co-founded Cherished Gowns UK and run it with the help of Hayley Mullen on a day to day basis. Cherished gowns was set up when we realised how much of a need there was for parents to have access to size appropriate, beautiful items of clothing for their precious babies. We read many heart-wrenching stories of parents being offered at best a very oversized item or at worst nothing.

We spent over 6 months researching the sizes we needed to offer and made the decision to take it one step further and offer a complete outfit. Our cherished gown packs consist of a gown and appropriately sized hat, booties, cloth nappy and a blanket. They also come in 5 sizes from 16 weeks through to full term, and we will make gowns on request for babies that pass away from 0-12 months, with a turn around time of just 1 week. This service is provided free to every UK hospital that has a maternity department.

When we set up cherished gowns we only ever intended to stock the hospitals closest to us, but after a very short time we discovered that this service was really sought after. In April 2015 we sent out our first boxes to UK hospitals and had a truly overwhelming response.

We have grown from strength to strength and now have 1800 volunteers who knit, crochet & sew that have transformed over 8,000 wedding dresses into 20,000 gowns. In the last 2 years we have donated, just under 100,000 items to 241 hospitals, as well as sending out over 800 gown packs directly to parents.

It’s a very hard thing to do, to write about yourself and I struggled greatly to do this. It was suggested I keep a total of how many hours in a week I spend running cherished, and that particular week it was 84 hrs. These hours were made up by organising fundraisers, sorting out the post which can amount to over 150 parcels a week, arranging for brides to send their dresses directly to the seamstresses, making up and sending boxes of gown packs, emails, Facebook messages, answering questions from our volunteers, updating our patterns, liaising with hospitals and funeral directors and sending gown packs directly to parents who for various reasons were not offered a gown pack whilst in hospital with their baby. I do this both both at home and also in our small office in Dover, which is open 3 days a week.

On an almost daily basis I speak with parents who are desperately trying to find something for their precious baby to wear. These parents have just experienced one of the hardest times they ever will and are often very lost as to what they need to do next. We do a lot of signposting to other charities and organisations that could help them with a range of issues from paying for the funeral, through to support for Grandparents.

We often find ourselves in the situation of having to pick up the pieces after families are let down by the care they receive elsewhere. I have on one occasion driven to hand deliver a gown directly to a Father at a hospital whilst his wife was in labour with their son, because the hospital had told them they had nothing suitable. We have made a gown from the mother’s own wedding dress for her daughter after she told her sister that she would love to have her baby dressed in this more than anything in the world.

We always try our hardest to work side by side with other charity’s to ensure that no one is forgotten about, and everyone receives the best care that we can get them.

What others have said:

Megan and her other admin run, organise, advise and support their hundreds of volunteers in providing beautiful gowns from donated wedding dresses to provide outfits for grieving patents to dress their Angel baby in. They also support all the volunteers who also make hats, bootees and blankets to go with the gowns. This group has expanded with the aim to cover all British Hospitals but without Megan and her partners this group would not have the skills and knowledge to arrange this. Surely there can’t be a better candidate to receive this award?