Knitters get creative with Burton Funeral Home to help families who have lost a child

Posted by nathan lloyd | Published: 07/04/2017


A group of kind-hearted knitters have joined forces with Central England Co-operative Funeralcare to craft baby blankets for grieving families whose child has passed away.

Visitors to Holly Road Supportive Care Centre, in Uttoxeter, have knitted and donated dozens of blankets to Central England Co-operative Funeralcare after hearing of a ground-breaking cuddle cot project from staff at Wellings Funeral Service, based in Derby Street, Burton.

Last year the Society purchased 10 cuddle cots which offer a cooling pad in a Moses basket to give relatives more time to say goodbye.

Wellings Funeral Director Jo Mills said: “We came to work with the group from Holly Road Supportive Care Centre after meeting co-ordinator Michelle Vodden at a community event for Age UK.

“She showed me items ladies from her knitting group had made for the elderly and while talking I explained about our cuddle cot project and asked if she thought the ladies would be interested in making blankets for families to use while their baby is in our care.

“Michelle thought they would love to help and offered to speak to them.  Margaret, who is one of the ladies that uses the centre and set up the knitting group, jumped at the opportunity and she and I had a long conversation with her about what size, colours and style. 

“She said her ladies were looking for a new project and would love to be involved.  We agreed I would supply them with wool.

“As a result, families can choose one or two blankets to use in the cuddle cot when their baby is in our care.  When the funeral is set to take place they can choose to either keep the blankets with their child or keep one.

“This kind donation allows us to continue to give families the opportunity to further create memories with their baby when we take their little one into our care.”

The cuddle cot project is one of the first of its kind in the funeral business and the cots are available across the trading area of Central England Co-operative.

The cuddle cots form part of The Rainbow Service, which offers a free of charge funeral service for children up to and including 17 years of age.

Holly Road Supportive Care Centre offers a range of services and information to support people to live well later in life and benefit from improved end of life care.

Michelle Vodden, Holly Road Supportive Care Centre Coordinator for St Giles, said: “I’m incredibly proud of how our knitters have embraced such a personal and emotional project. We are honoured to make this important gesture to these families, and to show that the local community cares about them and what they’re going through.

“Working so closely with Central England Co-operative Funeralcare is in line with our centre’s aims to provide support to local families that have experienced difficult circumstances, in particular serious illness and bereavement.” 

People can find out more about cuddle cots and The Rainbow Service by visiting http://www.centralengland.coop/funeral-services or calling 0800 454 552.

Notes to editors
The cuddle cots are available across the entire Central England Co-operative trading estate and have been provided by firm Flexmort.

The devices will be based at the following locations:
• Great Brook Street - Birmingham
• Stirchley -Birmingham
• Derby
• Heanor
• Corby
• Humberstone Road -Leicester
• Kings Lynn
• Peterborough
• Lowestoft
• Wellings – Burton

The Holly Road Supportive Care Centre is a community centre that was opened as a partnership between St Giles Hospice, Katharine House Hospice and the Hermitage Charitable Trust to support the people of Uttoxeter with living well in later life, as well as those suffering with ill health and bereavement. The knitting group is one session in a varied programme that helps local people at difficult periods in their lives.
St Giles Hospice is a registered charity offering high-quality specialist care free of charge for people living with cancer and other serious illnesses, as well as providing support for their families and carers.
Patients come from across the hospice’s catchment area, which ranges from Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Atherstone in the east, to Cannock and Walsall in the west – and from Burton and Uttoxeter in the north, to Sutton Coldfield and Coleshill in the south.
Care is offered at the hospice’s centres in Whittington, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall and Uttoxeter or in patients’ own homes across the region.
St Giles spends over £9 million a year providing its specialist services and with little more than a third of this funded by the Government, the registered charity relies heavily on donations and income generation from the local community.
About Central England Co-operative
Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK. It is a modern, forward-looking organisation employing over 8,000 staff, with projected gross sales of £958million for 2016/17. The Society recently celebrated being named Leading Co-operative of the Year 2016 by Co-operatives UK. The Society’s principal areas of activity are food, funeral services, and property. The company’s funeral business consists of over 120 funeral homes across 16 counties, 10 florists, masonry production and administration, Bretby Crematorium and Terry Smiths coffin factory.

Central England Co-operative has more than 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including; West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.  The Society has an ambitious food store and funeral home development programme for 2017.

Central England Co-operative is proud of its reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.  It is a member of Business in the Community, the membership organisation that stands for responsible business, and has also won many business awards for excellence.  The Society supports a number of charities including Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children and invests a percentage of its trading profit into local communities.

Becoming a member of Central England Co-operative offers a whole host of benefits ranging from collecting points every time you spend in store to earn a share of the profits, access to members activities and community initiatives including the Community Dividend Fund, which hands out grants of up to £5,000 to charities and good causes across the Society’s trading estate.
Find out how to become a Central England Co-operative member by calling 0800 0501 601, emailing members@centralengland.coop or visiting https://www.members.coop

For more information visit http://www.centralengland.coop follo,w Central England Co-operative on Twitter: @mycoopfood, @mycooplife and on Facebook: facebook.com/centralenglandcooperative
Rob Smyth at Central England Co-operative on 01543 414140
Email – publicrelations@centralengland.coop