A group of teenagers from Burton and South Derbyshire are helping preserve poignant memories of stillborn babies - with the first UK scheme of its kind to help grieving siblings.
Many hospitals across the country offer memory boxes to parents of stillborn babies, but do not offer them to their siblings. The group, who conducted the project through the National Citizen Service voluntary project, wanted to raise awareness and offer support to families who have lost a baby.
A group of 15 teenagers teamed up with the Stillborn and Neonatal Death charity to raise awareness for grieving families. The group, named New Light, aimed to complete 15 different activities to raise money.
Team leader Pippa Smith, said: "There are a lot of things out there offered to the parents of stillborn babies, but there is nothing for their brothers or sisters.
"Every day, 15 babies die in the UK. Because of that, we wanted to make 15 memory boxes for siblings at the hospital in Burton. It's a subject close to a lot of the team's heart, as one of the girls in the team had a stillborn sibling."
The team held bake sales, gardening work and bucket collections to raise the funds to create the boxes which will help siblings and offer them the support they need after losing a brother or sister.
Pippa added: "I am so proud to have worked with these inspirational young people on such a brilliant social action project.
"The impact they have had on the local community is significant and long-lasting."
Members of the team said they were happy with what they have achieved and have urged others to take on the challenge.
Aspen Foster said: "I've thoroughly enjoyed giving back to the community with my team. We've learned so much."
Dolce Minion said: "I wasn't keen at first, but I'm glad I did it, I have learned so much and made new friends."
A hospital spokesman said: "Our bereavement midwives currently give memory boxes to parents that have lost their baby, these boxes contain memento items that they can keep forever and can be a huge support for our parents. This is currently done in many hospitals and is a great support tool.
"What isn't currently done is memory boxes for siblings. These siblings are often part of the entire process of getting ready for a new addition in the family and can be hit hard with the terrible news.
"The group from NCS New Light have offered to create 50 memory boxes for siblings to also give them that support. This is not currently done, to our knowledge, at all in the UK and we would be the first Trust to offer it, which is incredibly exciting."
The National Citizen Service, which has been set up by the Government, is open to all 16 and 17-year-olds in England.
More than 275,000 young people have already taken part in the scheme, since it was launched in 2011.
