Wonderful News!!

It seems unbelievable that our Justgiving page received it's first donation a year ago in memory of our Son Benjamin Michael Avery and the thousands of other babies who were stillborn in 2009 and indeed every year.

A few weeks after Ben's first Birthday we thought that it would be apt to send you all a thankyou for your wonderful contributions which will help many parents and families who find themselves in similar circumstances to our own.

Thanks to your help and to those who took part in the Wave of Light and Surrey Circular Cycle Challenge events in October 2009 we have managed to raise a staggering £22,289 (after tax relief) for Sands so far. We are enormously proud to have raised so much in memory of Ben and it is one of several ways in which his legacy will be everlasting.

We have found out in the past two weeks that Surrey SANDS have now reached their revised £45K target and have had their plans for the new ‘Forget-me-not Suite' at the Royal Surrey County Hospital signed off. We are eagerly awaiting a start date from the builders but the project should only take a matter of weeks to complete.

We have also found out from our Consultant that the current Devani Study which is an international multi-centre study into Group B Streptococcus has now closed as they have enough participants to be able to start the process of fully understanding the bacteria (which is the biggest cause of neonatal death in the UK) and ultimately to produce a vaccine to prevent these unnecessary deaths.

The ‘Forget-me-not Suite' will provide a supportive, caring and calm environment in which parents and families can mourn the loss of their child whilst receiving the necessary medical care and ultimately start the process of coming to terms with their loss. This suite whilst part of the maternity department will be accessible without entering the pre or post-natal wards and will have its own nurse's station, en-suite and accommodation for partners and siblings. We feel that in conjunction with the facilities and information that is provided in the room by Sands, families will feel that they our fully supported at their time of need.

We will obviously keep you updated with the progress of the project so that you can directly see what it is that your donations have paid for but we would also like to finish this Email with a piece of wonderful news:

Victoria and I are pleased to announce that on Monday 12th April, with Ben in our hearts our beautiful daughter Sofia Violet Avery was born weighing 6lb 8oz!! Mum and baby are doing well and we are overjoyed that she has arrived into the world safely. Ben will always be our first-born and we love and miss him dearly. He will never be forgotten and we know that he will watch over, protect and guide his little sister through the rollercoaster of life.

We have decided to keep our page open for another year. Please do not feel obliged to donate further but if you know of anyone looking for a charity to raise money for or who may be interested in donating please do pass on the page link http://www.justgiving.com/benjaminavery or alternatively Email us via the contact page.