The Skye High Foundation was set up to help families during and after the loss of a twin, triplet or multiples. We created the purple butterfly cot card, which is to be placed in an incubator or cot in memory of their sibling. The cot card is used in conjunction with a poster that is placed around maternity and neonatal units, which explains the meaning of the purple butterfly. The cot card allows
families the opportunity to make others around them aware of the journey they are going through. Skye’s Story:
We first found out that Skye was not going to make it at my 12 week scan. She was a part of an identical twin pregnancy, with her sister Callie. The doctors informed us that Skye had a condition called Anencephaly and that no baby had ever survived this, it was impossible. We made the decision to continue with the pregnancy to give Callie a fighting chance, although it was high risk, we wanted to try. At 30 weeks pregnant, 10 weeks early, I went into labour. On the 30th April 2016 my beautiful girls were born weighing 2.3lb and 2.8lb. Callie was rushed to intensive care and we got to spend 3 amazing hours with Skye before she passed away. When Skye passed it felt like my world had ended, even though I had Callie, my heart was broken. Callie was cared for in neonatal for nearly 7 weeks. During this time we were surrounded by twins. No one knew about Skye and what we had been through. One afternoon, when all the babies were crying in the room apart from callie. Another mum turned to me and said: You are so lucky you don't have twins. This broke me. I then decided to create a poster and a symbol to explain to people our story without having to say a word. This is where the purple butterfly started. The purple butterfly is now a well known symbol round the world and we continue to work towards getting out hospital packs out to every hospital worldwide!
