At the presentation of the CuddleCot to St Mary’s Hospital are, from left, Nikki Collinson, Lynzey Gibbs, of Precious Moments, midwife Danielle Coombes and Ann Hinton, co-ordinator for the UK Sands charity, which supports bereaved parents.
GRIEVING parents on the Isle of Wight will have a chance to spend more time with their babies after an appeal to raise money for specialist medical equipment was successful.
Precious Moments, a fundraising and support platform for families who have lost babies, began to raise money to buy a CuddleCot, a device that turns any cot or moses basket into a cool cot, allowing bereaved parents to spend longer with their baby, even taking them home if they wish to.
A founding member of Precious Moments, Lynzey Gibbs, said: "We are a group of mums who have all had babies in the last year. One of our mums had lost a baby and we all decided to do something for people in that situation and that’s when we came up with the idea of a CuddleCot.
"We were doing fundraisers here and there, when Nikki swept in and saved the day."
Chiropractor Nikki Collinson, mother to one-year-old Laanii and founder of the charity Africa Children’s Development Trust, heard about Precious Moments’ appeal through a friend.
She said: "I wanted to get involved because I became a mum at the end of 2011 and I had a very high-risk pregnancy. I did have a healthy baby but it had me thinking about what could have been.
"Islanders donate 90 per cent of the funds I send to Africa and when you get so much support, you feel you want to give something back."
After setting up a text donation service and appealing constantly for people to help raise the money for the CuddleCot, Nikki raised the money in time for Christmas.
She said: "We actually had the money raised, the cot delivered and in St Mary’s Hospital within four weeks."
Lynzey added: "Having the CuddleCot means a lot to parents who find themselves in the situation where they have lost a baby.
"They can now be given an option which they wouldn’t have had before, and that is more time with their baby."
Reporter: sarab@iwcpmail.co.uk