What's happening in your local Sands area
The Hull and East Yorkshire Sands group is an active local branch of the National Sands charity. We have a local committee which meets once every (approximately) two months for a committe meeting and once a year, the meeting is an AGM.
Meetings give you the opportunity to come along if you are interested in finding out a bit more about how you can get involved in your local branch of Sands. You don't have to be on the committee to come to a meeting and there is no obligation to get involved. However, there is so much potential to do things to help those affected by babyloss in our area, by joining together, for example but not exclusively. to organise fundraising and awareness events. We are always looking for people to help and for new ideas.
The committee meeting is not a support meeting, it is to shape what happens locally, how we can help other bereaved families, how we can improve our services locally etc. Do come along or give one of us a call (see Contacts page) if you would like to find out a bit more beforehand.
Get involved
We are always looking for people to get involved in running our local Sands group so if you are interested in helping us please send us a brief email with your background, what area interests you (e.g. fundraising, working with the hospital etc.) and your contact details and we will get in touch with you. Our email address is hulleastyorkshire@sands.org.uk.
Being involved means being able to commit to attending the bi-monthly committee meetings (which usually last around 1.5-2 hours) and also being able to commit some of your personal time outside this to the role above. This will naturally vary from role to role. If you have any questions or would like to discuss being involved, please just get in touch and we will be happy to chat to you about it.
Thinking of becoming a befriender?
Hull and East Yorkshire Sands are looking for volunteers to become befrienders in our area. Sands befrienders play a vital role in offering invaluable local support to bereaved families.
To become a befriender, you need to meet just a few criteria, these being:
- at least one year should have elapsed since your baby's death;
- you are linked with Hull and East Yorkshire Sands (for example attended our meetings as a bereaved parent);
- you have successfully complete a Sands befriender training programme and;
- attended 4 support meetings;
- you are an individual paid member of Sands.
If you think you would like to get involved in this way with our group, please contact us via admin@hull-sands.org.uk and we will be happy to chat through any questions you may have. You can also find further information on befriending on the national Sands website under https://www.uk-sands.org/support/sands-groups/befriending.
Proposed work at the Baby Garden in Northern Cemetery, Chanterlands Avenue, Hull
Hull and East Yorkshire Sands met with Hull City Council’s Bereavement Services on Tuesday 3 June 2014 to better understand the proposals for the improvements in the individual grave area of the Baby Cemetery within the grounds of the Northern Cemetery in Hull. We now fully understand these proposals which we have detailed below along with reasons behind the proposed changes.
Maintenance of the grounds at present is extremely difficult due to the closeness of the individual baby graves and fencing around some of the graves. Grass and weeds grow very quickly especially at certain times of the year and the difficulty associated with cutting these between the tight spaces means that often the baby cemetery can look untidy and it is feared that families feel it is not being looked after as it should be. It is therefore proposed that all existing grass, both between graves and on top of graves will be removed and replaced by wood bark. The wood bark would then be sprayed three times a year with weed killer to ensure that it remains neat and tidy and it would also be topped up as and when necessary so that the baby garden always looks its best. The current paved paths would remain and a new informal path (non paved) would be laid at the back of the garden, creating a natural boundary towards the current memorial trees at the back of the garden.
The consultation process has now closed and once decisions have been made, we will share these with you here.
Hull and East Yorkshire Memorial Garden
Our local memorial garden at The Endsleigh Centre was opened and blessed on Sunday 9 February 2014 at 2pm. Sadly the Endsleigh Centre has since closed down and its future is uncertain. We are currently awaiting news on the future of the Centre. If it cannot be saved, our memorial will be moved to a new location. If this happens we will share this with you here and on Facebook.
Read the article published in the Hull Daily Mail on Monday 27 January 2014 about the new memorial garden by clicking here.
Local News
Please scroll down for local news. If you have any ideas or news of your own to share, please contact us via admin@hull-sands.org.uk. Also if you are interested in helping out / getting involved with any of the stories mentioned below, do come along to one of our committee meetings detailed above . We will be ever so pleased to see you.
March 2015
Bereavement Care Training Delivered Locally
Hull and East Yorkshire Sands has paid for 20 doulas and the doula training team to attend the Sands Doula Bereavement Care training care which is a course designed and delivered by Sands but is also approved by the Royal College of Midwives. The course was held in Hull at the Goodwin Centre and is aimed to improve the way care is delievered by health professionals to bereaved families. Our befriender, Fiona Johnson, spoke about our work locally as part of the training and our Fundraising Coordinator, Romina Lewak, shared her own experience at the event. If you would like to find out more about the training course and what it entails, please visit: https://www.uk-sands.org/news/professionals/2015-02-17/sands-now-offers-bereavement-care-training-doulas .
November 2014
Asda Bilton Green Token Charity collection
Wonderful news!!! Thank you to everyone who supported us at Asda Bilton's green charity token collection over the last two months. We have won and will shortly be receiving a cheque for £200! Really great support from the store itself - big thank you to everyone for raising awareness of the support we provide and the work that we do in the local area.
October 2014
Bereavement Care Training Delivered Locally
Hull and East Yorkshire Sands has paid for 20 midwives, consultants and the hospital chaplain from Hull Women & Children's hospital to attend the Sands Bereavement Care training care which is a course designed and delivered by Sands but is also approved by the Royal College of Midwives. The course was held in Hull and is aimed to improve the way care is delievered by health professionals to bereaved families. Our Chair, Maggie Simkiss, spoke about our work locally as part of the training and our Hospital Liaision, Lisa Laverack, shared her own experience at the event. If you would like to find out more about the training course and what it entails, please visit: https://www.uk-sands.org/professionals/training-for-professionals/one-day-workshops . The training was so well received that it is expected that a further 20 local professionals will attend the same training in the new year, also to be funded by Hull and East Yorkshire Sands.
We are Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust's Charity of the Year!
It is with immense pleasure and excitement that we can announce that the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has chosen Hull and East Yorkshire Sands as their Charity of the Year. The decision was made through staff voting in September 2014. Thank you to everyone who voted for us.
July 2014
Asda Kingswood Green Token Charity collection
Wonderful news!!! Thank you to everyone who supported us at Asda Kingswood's green charity token collection over the last two months. We have won and will shortly be receiving a cheque for £200! Really great support from the store itself - big thank you to everyone for raising awareness of the support we provide and the work that we do in the local area.
"Making a Difference Locally" donation to Hull and East Yorkshire Sands
Thank you so much to "Making a Difference Locally" for the wonderful donation of £500 which was also received this month.
Making a Difference Locally is a charity that has been established to support local communities. The communities supported are those which are served by local independently-owned convenience stores that are members of Nisa and we were nominated by one of their members of staff.
Here is a link to their press release which includes the donation to our charity.
http://www.makingadifferencelocally.com/MADL/SuccessStories/News/Details/5d52e704-e3ed-45ff-be97-70adc9e3446d
May 2014
Hull and East Yorkshire Sands attends Hull Midwifery Society event
Hull and East Yorkshire Sands was approached by Hull University Midwifery Society in May 2014 and asked to attend the Society’s first event after its launch, which was about bereavement. Students were keen to understand this topic in more detail as they felt this would be one of the hardest situations to find themselves in during their training and in future, their work life. The full day event was split into three sections with a representative from Hull Women and Children’s giving the students a detailed talk about baby loss from a hospital perspective including statistics; a presentation from a charity calledAching Arms UK and finally a presentation by Hull and East Yorkshire Sands’ Fiona Johnson. Fiona talked about Sands in general and what they stand for, including our local branch and she also shared her own personal experience of losing her little boy Euan. The day went really well and it is hoped that Hull and East Yorkshire Sands can continue to work closely with the Society in the future.
A photo from the day is attached and if you wish to find out more about the Society itself or Aching Arms, you can follow the links below. The Society does not yet have its own website but they have a promotional video on YouTube as per link below.
Hull Midwifery Society
www.facebook.com/hulluniversitymidwiferysociety
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VvOj8eHMV8k
Aching Arms
www.achingarms.co.uk
www.facebook.com/achingarms
January 2014
Local Sands memorial garden in Hull (update since December)
The blessing for the memorial garden has now been set for Sunday 9 February 2014 2pm.
The garden is within the grounds of the Endsleigh Centre on Beverley Road in Hull. We would be delighted if you could join us for the ceremony. Entrance to the centre is from Beverley Road (near the junction with Cottingham Road) and if you could come to the Reception at the Centre for 1.50pm, we will all make our way to the blessing ceremony together for 2pm. Refreshments will be provided after the ceremony.
For details of the garden, how and when you can visit, what can be left, please refer to the Hull and East Yorkshire Sands Memorial Garden section above.
December 2013
Local Sands memorial garden in Hull (update since November)
The memorial stone is now in the country and here are a few pictures as a "sneak preview". We hope you will be able to join us for the opening ceremony in due course.
November 2013
Local Sands memorial garden in Hull (update since July)
Plans for the memorial garden are firmly under way with the actual memorial stone having been designed, crafted and delivered. It is hoped it will be erected shortly and Hull and East Yorkshire Sands are hoping for a service blessing and opening the memorial in early December. You will also be able to leave pebbles in the memorial garden and there is also a Rememberance Tree within the grounds where you can tie a ribbon in memory of a loved one, young or old. Please watch this space and our Events page for details of the opening ceremony.
July 2013
New cold cot for Hull Royal Women & Children's Maternity ward
This month saw the delivery of a much needed, brand new second cold cot to Hull's Women & Children's Hospital's maternity ward. The cot was fully funded by Hull Sands and custom made by a company based in Merseyside. We have sadly had quite a few occasions recently with more than one bereavement at the same time. The new cold cot will enable families to spend longer with their precious babies.
Local Sands memorial garden in Hull
Hull and East Yorkshire Sands has been working closely behind the scenes with the Endsleigh Centre on Beverley Road, Hull, on the creation of a baby memorial garden. The Centre have really welcomed us and were delighted to help us achieve our ideas. We are currently working on the design of the memorial stone for the garden and once the garden is ready, we hope to have the garden blessed with a special opening ceremony.
The Endsleigh Centre is a wonderful, peaceful set of grounds where you can escape the hustle and bustle of the city and remember your babies (and other loved ones lost) in a special way. Please check back in on this page to see how we progress with it over the coming months.
Our future ideas for the memorial garden include maybe an annual summer open air memorial service. We would love to know what you think, please do let us know by emailing admin@hull-sands.org.uk with the subject "Local memorial garden". Thank you.
June 2013
New support group to start next month in Driffield
Hull and East Yorkshire Sands are delighted to announce a new support group starting in Driffield. The group will meet once a month on the first Monday of each month and be run by one of our trained befrienders Fiona Johnson. We hope the group will offer further support as an alternative location to those bereaved families who may live further away from Hull and cannot maybe attend the Hull meeting due the distance they would need to travel for example.
Please click on this link for an article about the new support group, which was published in The Driffield Times on 27 June.
Working together with Abbie's Fund
It was agreed at our May 2013 AGM, that going forward Hull Sands would no longer be supplying the Women & Children's maternity ward alongside Abbie's Fund (a local charity) with memory boxes but instead work together with the charity.
Hull Sands are now pleased to announce that they make a regular donation to Abbie's Fund who have taken responsibilty for supplying the memory boxes. You can visit Abbie's Fund website for further information about the charity.