Jo Francis, who works at Panda Nursery in Limpsfield, raised over £15,000 for SANDS, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, at her charity ball, held in October at the Lingfield Racecourse.
After a little arm-twisting from friends, Jo and husband Colin arranged the Sands Charity Ball in memory of their son, Charlie Noah Francis, who died shortly after his birth in January 2011.
The couple approached many companies and organisations for donations for the auction and raffle and received some great items, including signed sports shirts holidays and spa days.
Jo suffered a ruptured uterus and bladder when she was seven months pregnant and after a three-day fight, their baby son, Charlie, tragically lost his life.
“If it had not been for the fantastic nurses, bereavement team within the hospital, literature, befrienders, Facebook page and many other things that SANDS provided, I honestly don’t know how we would have coped,” said Jo. “It is lovely to be able to give something back to this wonderful charity.”
“Baby loss awareness is so important and more research needs to be done to find out why so many babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth, some for no reason. We hope the money goes somewhere towards helping another family cope with the horrendous situation that we and so many others have experienced and hopefully, soon some of these deaths can be prevented”, she said.
For more information and help regarding stillbirth and neonatal death, go to the SANDS website at https://www.uk-sands.org/.
Limpsfield, Surrey 