PARENTS who lost their son during pregnancy are to launch their own charity to help other grieving families.
Dawn and Mick Rutherford’s son, Kyle, died in 2006 after Dawn had been pregnant for 15 weeks and three days.
But the pain of losing Kyle was made worse after they were denied any official record of their son’s life.
UK law states that babies who die before they are 24 weeks old are treated as a miscarriage, meaning parents are not given any documents of their child’s existence.
The Paddock couple are now campaigning for a change in the law and have launched their own group, Little Angel Wings, in a bid to support other bereaved parents.
Said Dawn: “The law is disgusting, a lot of people don’t realise you don’t get anything, a birth certificate, a death certificate, nothing.
“Some don’t even have funerals. I think it makes it more upsetting; we’ve got nowhere we can go to be with him.
“All we’ve got is the memorial we’ve made in our front garden.
“It would have been nice if we could have had that chance to give him the funeral that he deserves, but in the eyes of the law he doesn’t exist.”
The mum of four, 29, who has had two daughters since the sad loss of Kyle, said following her son’s death she had felt like there was nowhere to go for help.
She said: “I lost my son in August 2006 due to unknown causes and I felt I got no support from the hospital.
“None of my closest friends at the time had lost children and I needed a little bit more support.
“I got a leaflet from the Miscarriage Association which did help, but I felt it wasn’t enough.
“I joined Facebook and there’s some miscarriage groups on there.
“There are lots of charities out there but I just couldn’t find anywhere in the Huddersfield area where I could go and meet somebody.”
After being frustrated by the lack of support in the area Dawn and Mick set up their own Facebook page.
And last week they launched their own website to help other grieving parents. They hope to raise more than £5,000 and achieve full charity status.
Said Dawn: “We started back in 2009 and just set up a basic online support site for grieving families.
“Then last November we thought we wanted to do more.
“We thought it would be nice if we could become a charity and offer financial assistance for plaques and headstones for babies born under 24 weeks – the ones that everyone seems to forget about.
“We want to remember them, that’s why it’s called Little Angel Wings.
“People are welcome to ring us and if they live locally we will meet them, we just want to be there and offer support and try and break the pregnancy and infant loss taboo.
“We’re not trying to rub it in people’s faces but sadly it does happen, thousands of families are affected every year and people don’t know about it.”
Fundraising events planned for this year include a ladies’ night, a sponsored fancy dress walk, and 10 supporters have already vowed to do the Great North Run.
To get help search for ‘Little Angel Wings’ on Facebook. Web:
www.littleangelwings06.webs.com
