love of my Joshua
By MARl JONES
Joshua's Boxes has been set up by Fiona Beavan, of Llannerch Road West, who lost her son Joshua last September when he was four days old.
Joshua was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. His mother was told after her 20-week scan that there was only a 50 per cent chance of her baby surviving.
However, Fiona, who has seven other children, decided to carry on with the pregnancy.
She said: "It was horribly traumatic. I decided to tell everybody so if I turned up with no pram they would understand why.
"We had him for four days and introduced him to all his siblings so they would have some memory of their brother. We also had time to prepare and made sure we got a lock of his hair, took his footprints and hand prints and also plenty of pictures."
Fiona had already set up a website where she wrote down her thoughts about Joshua's progress and death.
"I couldn't talk to people about it but I could write it down," she explained.
" We got 2,200 hits in seven months. I noticed a lot of the parents were not as fortunate to have an antenatal diagnosis. and therefore not able to prepare for their babies' death. Many have few, or even no, tangible memories."
After months of thinking
of how to remember Joshua, Fiona came up with the idea of memory boxes.
She said: "We started to make 'Joshua's Boxes'. We initially
enlisted the help of our church and got everyone making blankets and hats
and buying teddies, and the response was fantastic. The boxes came in.
three sizes: early loss, mid-term loss and full-term loss. Inside each
memory box is a blanket and hat of the appropriate size, a disposable
camera, a teddy bear, and a list of useful web pages."
The first boxes were given out at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd at Easter. The response
was fantastic.
Fiona said: "My hope is that we can deliver boxes to every hospital
in the country. I do want to make clear that hospitals do provide some
of the things we give in the memory boxes. It's by no means a new idea,
our's might just be presented a little differently and provide a few more
things. We just want to help parents make memories of their child, as
memories are all we have left when a child dies suddenly. Personally it
has helped me deal with my grief."
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Fiona is looking for knitters who could help with baby blankets and hats. She will provide money for the wool.
Call Fiona on 01492 545591 or visit www.joshua.boxes.co.uk