FAMILIES will come together to remember their lost babies during a special memorial service.


The Forget Me Not Support Group, which was established in 2004 to help families who have suffered the loss of a baby before, during or after childbirth, will hold their annual multi-faith ceremony at Basildon Crematorium on Saturday.


It is now in its fifth year after founders of the support group were asked to come up with a way to remember their children to coincide with the national Baby Loss Awareness Week.

Jo Lane, 41, from Shotgate, created Forget Me Not alongside Karla Cairns and Lisa Hayes after her baby boy Cavan was stillborn in May 2012.


She said: “There isn’t really anything else like this around, so we have people coming from all over. It’s obviously a very emotional service but actually quite therapeutic. It’s nice to know that whether you do something yourself to celebrate their birthday or not, once a year you will have a day dedicated to remembering your baby.


“It’s actually a very common thing to have a stillbirth or similar complications but it’s not until it happens to yourself that you realise.


“We have worked with some people who have been in really bad places and then we see them at the service a few years later and they have been able to move on in their own way. It really makes what we do worthwhile.”