Wednesday 12th April 2006:

We are delighted and relieved to announce the safe arrival of

' Mair Grace Beavan ',

Born at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday 6th April
at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, North Wales.

She's tiny (6lb 2oz) and adored by everyone! And now we are 11!!

Mum is doing well but is very tired after her longest labour.

Mair-pronouced MY-AR is Welsh for Mary by the way! More news later.

With love from

Simon, Fiona, Abie, Miriam, Susie, Bella, Luke, Martha, Jono, Joshua and Mair.

Friday 16th September 2005:

' HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY JOSHUA '

It hardly seems possible that two years have passed since he came into our lives.

Thank you all for your support in so many ways, both personally and also with Joshua's Boxes Charity. In just over a year, we are now equipping 25 hospitals with memory boxes, sold over 4,000 wristbands and raised over £7,000!

Please, if you have time, look on our personal site http://www.geocities.com/joshuajamesheart/

Nothing can nor will ever replace the gap left by Joshua in our lives and our family, but thanks to so many of you, we are all living happy and fullfilled lives.

With our love and thanks,

Fiona, Simon, Abigail, Miriam, Susannah, Isobel, Luke, Martha, Jonathan and our special angel, Joshua.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sunday 8th May 2005:

Joshua's Boxes™ Wristbands are finally here! ...............

They are fantastic, I am so pleased with how they have turned out.
They are in one size and say 'Memories last forever'
They are marbled in pastel pink and blue and look good for blokes as well.

How to order

There are two ways as we are such a small charity. However, Please be aware that as I have a large family, am working full-time and run this charity voluntary in my own time all wristbands will take within 14 days to dispatch. Your patience would be much appreciated, thankyou in advance!

1. Through our website via paypal by clicking on the DONATE button below:
   Remember they are £2 ($3.80) plus postage at 99p ($1.90). Please then email me with your address and let me know you paid this way and I can send them out to you.
   
   or
   
2. To order the wristbands please send a cheque for ......(your total per the number of bands you wish to purchase) made out to Joshua's Boxes™. Please remember to include a return address and an contact email so that we can get in touch to confirm that your order has been despatched. We aim to ensure your order will be processed and despatched within 7-10 working days.
   
   Thank you for supporting this worthwhile cause and don't forget to visit this site to see how much we have raised from the sale of the bands.
   
   Send all cheques to:
   
   Joshua's Boxes™,
   21,Llannerch Road West,
   Rhos on Sea,
   North Wales.
   LL284AU.

Thank you so much for supporting all that we do.

With your help we will be able to raise much more money, which means more parents in more hospitals will be able to recieve these boxes.

Tuesday 14 December 2004:

We were on the radio!!! BBC Radio four interviewed me about helping families face the death of a newborn baby and the charity. I just hope and pray that through this the loss of a baby and how it effects families will be highlighted more and people will become more aware of how important it is to gather as many memories as you can. If this happens then I will be happy.

Kate Weidmann reports on how one family's experience of this loss led them to help others in their situation by creating Joshua's Boxes™

Click on the above link to have a listen!

BBC Radio Four Archive - Joshua's Boxes™

Friday 24th September:

" We can celebrate - we are now and official registered charity "- the charity number is 1106030. The clarification came through on my birthday and the week of all Joshua's First anniversaries.

I will be sending out pledge letters soon to all who have pledged, to those who have not, it's never too late! I can also now claim back gift aid for those of you who have pledged as well.

In the four months I have been offically doing this we have handed out over 80 boxes to 4 different hospitals, had features in 4 different papers, spoken at a variety of functions and had endless positive support from so many. Please do keep visiting us here where regular updates will be posted.

I will never get over losing our beautiful baby, but I do know that doing this has helped so many, and in helping others my babies life was not wasted and his memory will live on in such a positive way.

Thank you so much for all of your love and support.

With much love,

Fiona

Monday 5th July 2004:

Sarah Grace Boxes
In loving memory of Sarah Grace Moran
12/4/04 – 15/4/04
Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

As I looked into HLHS on the internet, I met another mum who had suffered a similar loss – her son Joshua died of HLHS at three days old. Fiona is inspirational, and decided to use her experience to help other women in similar situations. She set up a scheme called Joshua’s Boxes™, where she provided memory box kits to her hospital for other women who suffered from stillbirth or neonatal loss. I felt that the time we spent with Sarah after her death, the photos we took (luckily we had a camera there) and the little outfits we have really helped us to remember her as our little girl, and not just a baby in an incubator with tubes and wired everywhere, and realised that often people don’t have all the options they would like at times like that. So we decided to get involved with Joshua’s Boxes™, and open a branch called Sarah Grace Boxes.

Louise & Graeme
London
United Kingdom

Samuel's Boxes
In loving memory of Samuel Cuthbertson
21st October 2003 - 12th December 2004
passed away at 7 1/2 weeks old
Myotubular Myopathy

During my contact with other mums and dads who also had sadly lost their children too, I met a lady who’s son Joshua Beavan had sadly died from a rare condition of the heart at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital. Joshua’s mum seemed a very strong lady who inspired me with her drive and initiative. She wished to help out others who were seemingly less fortunate than herself because they hadn’t so much as a photo of their child before they had to let them go. This is how Samuel’s Boxes has become a recently established charitable scheme which benefits parents and families experiencing the very difficult time of having a poorly or premature baby in an Intensive Care or Special Care Baby Unit.

Helen and Ian
West Midlands
United Kingdom

Monday 5th July 2004

Website Launch:

Up until now we have had a holding page up with a few details of our charity - we are now very proud to be able to launch our website and hope that it helps us spread this charity far and wide.

My name is Victoria Dixon and along with my husband Magnus, and Fionas’ input on content we have put together this website for this wonderful charity. We lost our precious baby boy Thomas on New Years Day 2004. He was born still at 31 ¼ weeks’ gestation; we have since discovered that he had a congenital heart defect and very hypoplastic lungs. I can honestly say that the day we discovered we had lost our baby was the most difficult and unbearably sad day of my life.

As many couples are who have lost babies, we are filled with regret of how few mementos we have left to cherish of our baby boy. Those that we do have we will hold close to our hearts forever but we feel so sad that we do not even have a photograph that we can show to family and friends as the photos that were taken of Thomas on that horrible day were taken too late and he had deteriorated a lot. These photos are very distressing to look at and we know we will never share them with anyone. My husband saw Thomas when he was born, only very briefly before the midwife carried him away. Unfortunately I did not see my precious little boy, nor did I hold him, partly due to shock but also we were not prepared for how much he would deteriorate in such a short space of time.

We have many memories of our time spent with Thomas when I was pregnant, which are all documented on his website ‘Baby Thomas Dixon’. However, we do feel that had we been made more aware of how important physical mementos of our baby would be for us in the days, weeks, months and years that followed his death we know we would have gathered as much as we could. I turned to the Internet for support in those days when I knew I needed to find others who had experienced the same sadness, people who would truly understand how I felt. This is how I met Fiona; she has been a gift and has been there for me when others couldn’t. I feel that this charity will become an invaluable source of support and comfort for many others who may lose their babies and hope that these memory boxes help those families gather those precious mementos that they will go on to cherish for the rest of their lives.

Wishing you lots of luck Fiona for 'Joshuas Boxes™', I hope that your charity will touch many people and go from strength to strength.

Glan Clwyd District General Hospital, Rhyl, North Wales.

This is the first hospital where we have handed out Joshua’s Boxes™. It is our local hospital and the one where Joshua was born. The staff have been very supportive and helpful as we have been developing this scheme.

The boxes were given to the sister in charge of The Central Labour Suite, along with a letter explaining all about them for the staff and a contact number for when they need more boxes. They were so enthusiastically received by the midwifes ho felt that the boxes were both practical as well as being ideal to meet parents needs without invading their privacy at all. It was lovely to be able to go as a family and remember Joshua in such a positive and practical way, and inspired us all to try to set up this scheme in as many other hospitals as we possibly can.

Since handing out the initial boxes there we are also going to provide little baby blankets and Angels’ purses for the Gynaecology wards so that ladies who miscarry will also have the opportunity of taking away some reminder of their precious baby as well. We have also put together a box of little blankets, hearts, angels and objects incase the parents want a few good quality photos of their baby, this box will seek to provide some different backgrounds and items that the baby can be photographed sensitively with.

My hope is that by working with each of the hospitals in this charitable scheme we will be able to tailor our boxes and gifts to the hospitals specific needs. Since we initially handed out the boxes we have had to deliver 6 more, so we know they are used and we are meeting a need with these.

Thursday 24th June:

Abie and I went to take our first 10 boxes to the huge St Mary's Hospital for Women and Children in Manchester. They see roughly 500-600 babies a year from all over the UK in the Special Care Baby unit, and sadly loose about 50-60 of these. So they have a real need for whatever help that we can provide. We met with the bereavement councellor, Jayne, who had initially been contacted and had a very constructive time as she talked about the things they all ready provided, and what they felt they would need. I really hope I can get more ladies involved from Manchester so that we can really support the marvelous work that they do there to support parents.