A MOTHER of two has set up an organisation to help bereaved parents with the costs of memorials or cemetery fees when a baby or child dies.

Vicky Shorrock from Glebe Road in Letchworth GC, set up Angel’s Gift in memory of her daughter Angel Olive, who died during labour in April.

The 26-year-old said: “My pregnancy was normal and with it being my third, I didn’t in a million years think that something would go wrong.”

On April 1 Mrs Shorrock’s waters started to leak so she was taken to hospital by her husband.

After some checks, she was told to go home and to return when labour established more.

Mrs Shorrock said in the matter of a split second she felt “an almighty pop and gush, my husband pulled the covers off me as my waters had completely gone.”

“My husband called the ambulance but what we didn’t know was that it was too late. My daughter had died.”

By setting up Angel’s Gift Mrs Shorrock wishes to keep her daughter’s memory alive. The organisation is still in its early days and hopes to help its first family by April 2013.

“Although funeral directors don’t charge for a funeral for a baby there are costs to erect and buy a headstone.

“As a parent you never put money aside for a funeral or a headstone for your child. I had bills to pay and the cost of putting up a headstone was proving to be very expensive.”

Mrs Shorrock said on average the cost to have the right to put up a headstone is around �427.50. To buy a headstone can cost anything up to and over �800.

“Obviously I wanted the best headstone for my daughter but I have had to save for it. And I hope that through this organisation I will be able to take away the worry for families to have to think about things like this.”

Initially the organisation will only help families in Letchworth GC, with the hope of expanding to families in other towns when the funds get greater.

Angel’s Gift is holding its first fundraising event on December 7 with a lantern lit walk in Letchworth GC.

For more information on the walk or if you would like to sponsor or donate a raffle prize, contact Vicky on 07745 995945 or visit www.angels-gift.webs.com