Lia’s head shave to support children at hospital

We would like to send a huge thank you to Ashleigh Clay, her partner and her amazing family for all their hard work and ongoing support for our Twinkling Stars Appeal, supporting Kettering General Hospital. They raised a fantastic £1,040 for our appeal to fund the new maternity bereavement suite at the hospital, from the Cake Sale and tombola they held last month.

Ashleigh said, “I want to dedicate mine, my partner and my family’s hard work to my daughter Robyn Marina Riley Outen-Clay.

This charity means a lot to us because I lost my daughter Robyn to Edward’s syndrome. The day Robyn was born was the hardest day of my life. It was truly heartbreaking. At the same time I was grieving my daughter, a family was giving birth. I never got to hear my baby’s first cry, but I heard that baby’s first. It made my day harder than what it was.

So every year since Robyn, during Baby Loss Awareness Week I do a cake sale to raise money for Twinkling Stars to help grieving parents to have time with their angels without hearing newborn babies.“

Having done a head shave twice before she jumped right back in, going under the clippers on her birthday back on 24^th August. Facilities Operations Manager at Wincanton, Keith Dorrill (pictured above with Lia and Disney Ward Manager, Jan Matthews) kindly halted operations for an hour while Lia’s long locks were shaved off and so that colleagues could provide their support.

Indeed, there was a huge amount of support and sponsorship that came directly from staff at Wincanton – thank you so much to everyone who helped Lia to raise this amazing £1,800! It will make such a big difference to children while they are in hospital.

Would you brave the shave for your local NHS hospitals? Or, perhaps you have another fundraising idea? Visit our fundraising page to find out how you can get involved.