Please note that this campaign has now ended.



A campaign to raise £25,000 for a bereavement suite at the West Middlesex University Hospital is well underway, thanks to the dedication and drive of the West London Sands group.

The group has been working closely with the hospital for the past ten years, in a bid to improve services for bereaved parents. Over the years, West London Sands has provided memory books, memory boxes and keepsake bags for bereaved families, and its work in perinatal bereavement care resulted in an invitation to 10 Downing Street last year, where the group’s work was recognised with a Community Hero Award.  But the latest - and most ambitious - campaign so far will eventually result in a brand new bereavement suite at the hospital, which will be of enormous benefit to parents who experience the tragic loss of their baby.   

The need for a bereavement suite at the hospital has been high on the agenda for West London Sands for many years, and the group has made concerted efforts through meetings and discussion to persuade hospital officials that it would be a step in the right direction.  Thanks to the group’s persistence and professionalism, officials were persuaded that a suite was indeed necessary, and in August 2009 gave the go ahead for one of its operating theatres to be transformed.

Support for the campaign is already off to a flying start, as the hospital’s bereavement midwife, Julia Lidderdale, raised £300 by completing the Cabbage Patch ten mile run around Twickenham in October.   Local primary school children have also donated £254 following an appeal for donations at its annual Summer Dance event.

Anyone who would like to get involved in fundraising should contact West London Sands at info@westlondonsands.org.uk.