The Bluebell Foundation

The death of a baby, infant or child, or the struggle to conceive can have a great impact on the family concerned.

And the need to provide a counselling service led to the launch in South Cumbria of the Bluebell Foundation in 2007, Joy Porter and Lynn Lamb told members of Barrow Rotary Club at their meeting at the Lisdoonie Hotel.

Joy said she had been a bereaved support counsellor at Furness General Hospital and she knew there was a demand for a such a service even when it was axed in 2007 because of the number of people needing support when suffering grief over the death of a baby or a child.

That need has been shown by the fact that they have offered support to 134 families in South Cumbria in the past year.

They have also dedicated a special garden at FGH, away from the wards, where grieving people can have some quiet time by themselves.

She told of a problems helping grieving children and the encouragement of the young to have a Memory Book where they can write their thoughts, do drawings and keep pictures. They also encourage a Memory Box where a child could keep letters or cards. And they have a Salt Memory Jar where the young can record four or five different events with different colours depicting the various memories.

Joy said that in the past year they had offered their services to ten schools in South Cumbria.