2023 was a remarkable year for Abigail’s Footsteps, to note a few of their achievements; delivering training to over 1,600 healthcare professionals nationwide, counselling for more than 100 families and Abi cooling cots delivered to 46 hospitals and hospices. The charity continues to grow and strengthen its governance, with the appointment of a new Chair.
During Baby Loss Awareness Week we launched our first series of podcasts. Thank you to everyone who took part and a special mention to Nicola Everett from KMFM for hosting the series. Click here to listen to the first 5 episodes.
We held our very first baby loss conference in June, kindly hosted at the London offices of Fieldfisher. Thank you to The Bond Group for sponsoring the event which was attended by 100 healthcare professionals.
Ambassador Keeley Emmett nominated us for charity of the year, we were delighted to be awarded £42,320.31. Cheryl Baker visited the Taylor Rose offices to say thank you for this generous donation.
31 runners took part in the London Landmarks Half Marathon led by our amazing Vice President, Cheryl Baker. Thank you to Alyssa Ely-Cook for running the mascot dash as Abigail Bear and coming third.
The year started with our amazing team of 25 runners, in the London Landmarks Half Marathon, they collectively raised a huge £26,116! Highlight of the year was a bereavement garden designed on behalf of our charity, displayed at RHS Malvern Spring Festival in May, the garden is being rebuilt at Rochester Cathedral. In June, we commemorated 10 years since the first cold cot was donated, at House of Lords, hosted by Patron Lady Astor of Hever. Our biggest fundraiser this year was our Annual Gala, held at Rochester Corn Exchange in September, commemorating 12 years since the charity was started by David & Jo Ward. This year, we delivered 28 Abi Cots this year, to hospitals throughout the UK.
The bereavement garden has been thoughtfully designed by Rick Ford, intended to be a calming place where parents and families can sit together and seek contemplation when grieving the loss of a baby. We look forward to it being rebuilt at Rochester Cathedral.
In June, our Patron Lady Astor hosted an evening reception, at The House of Lords, to commemorate 10 years since the first cold cot was delivered, we took the opportunity to thank some of our families who have donated Abi cots this year, to hospitals Nationwide.
In September, we commemorated 12 years since the charity began, with our annual charity gala, at Rochester Corn Exchange, the evening was hosted by Nicola Everett & auctioneer Chris Cowdrey, who made it a truly fantastic evening for everyone that attended.
The long awaited sequel to the ground breaking Deafening Silence, Say My Baby’s Name; Pregnancy After Loss, launched in October, at the start of Baby Loss Awareness Week, the film will form part of the Abigail’s Angels Training programme.
We proudly delivered 57 Abi Cots this year, to hospitals throughout the United Kingdom and we were successfully awarded a National Lottery Community Fund grant of £296,240! With a rise in demand for our counselling programme we took on another counsellor as part of our team, welcome Jenny Bradshaw to our family. Highlights this year were being named Kent Charity Awards finalists and 3 time winner at the Kent Wellbeing and Mental Health Awards.
This year we delivered over 50 Abi Cots throughout the UK. Thank you to all the families fundraising that made this possible.
In April, we were so very grateful to be awarded a whopping £296,240 from the National Lottery Community Fund.
In September we were delighted to be finalists at the Kent Charity Awards and winners at the Kent Wellbeing & Mental Heath Awards in October.
November we enjoyed ‘Back With A Bang’ our first in the room event in 2 years, a truly great night, being able to thank our supporters.
Sadly due to the pandemic putting a hold on the majority of our planned fundraising events this year, we weren’t able to celebrate turning 10 with our gala evening, but it will return bigger and better in the future. Most importantly with all the uncertainty this year, we launched our Abigail’s Angels Bereavement Training programme, which has been attended by over 600 health care professionals and our counselling programme has delivered over 400 individual sessions to bereaved parents.
Abigail, our mascot bear was unveiled at the pre-race meet up at Brands Hatch in February, Cheryl Baker joined our team of 40 runners.
Becky Hopkins alongside husband John hosted a fantastic fundraising evening at the Rochester & Cobham golf club, raising over £5,500.
In October we welcomed Louise Giblin to the charity as our new Vice President. We are so pleased Louise accepted the role to join team Abigails.
Our first online auction raised over £19,000 we couldn’t believe the help we received after such a tough year, thank you for your support.
We continued fulfilling our charity main aims; funding healthcare professionals to attend bereavement training courses, providing Abi cooling cots to hospitals which enables parents to spend time with their babies and now we’ve extended our aftercare to provide families with funded specialist baby loss counselling, we believe that everyone should be entitled to private counselling sessions following the death of a baby.
February highlight was our Glitz & Glamour ball, everyone had a great time, thank you to Cheryl Baker for her performance.
July highlight was our Charity golf day at The Nevill golf club, Tunbridge Wells, great day with glorious weather.
September was so much fun, we had an amazing time at the KM Events annual Dragon Boat Race, great family day out.
November we rocked the cathedral with BeatleMania, the Counterfeit Beatles were a great tribute band.
We would like to keep you updated with latest news about our work and how you can help support us through fundraising & events.