On the 19th December 2013, Michelle and Richard Daniels were dealt one of life’s hardest blows when their beautiful daughter Emily was stillborn. After 9 months of love and care for their unborn daughter, a freak twist of fate meant that she would be gone all to soon. The care that they received from the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham was first class and Michelle and Richard can only speak in
the highest regard for all the support they had from them. Sadly due to resources at the time, the Queen's Medical Centre, didn't have a permanent facility to cater for parents that have suffered baby loss and as such they families were placed back in a room on the maternity ward. On the second night of Michelle’s stay in hospital, due to the location of the room, she had to endure the torture of listening to a lady giving birth to a little girl and the joy surrounding the occasion, when Richard returned to the hospital the following morning, Michelle looked just as she did when we found out Emily had not survived. It was at that moment that Michelle and Richard agreed that when the time was right, they would work together to raise the necessary funds to initially create a bereavement suite at the Queen's Medical Centre, something they achieved in 2016 with the charity that they started called Forever Stars. Since establishing Forever Stars in January 2014 and officially become a registered charity in May of that year, the charity has grown from strength to strength. Forever Stars now funded a bereavement suite for both the Queen's Medical Centre and the City Hospital in Nottingham; called The Serenity Suites. The charity has also created a baby loss remembrance garden in Highfield Park called The Serenity Garden and in late 2021 officially opened their first support centre for baby loss families called The Serenity Centre. Forever Stars are also an official partner and are extremely proactive in supporting Baby Loss Awareness Week every October, to help break the taboo of talking about baby loss. Forever Stars is funded entirely through donations and has one part time member of staff and a fabulous bank of volunteers, all of whom work tirelessly for Forever Stars to help us support the baby loss community
For Michelle and Richard, their hearts will never mend from the loss of Emily but it hurts a little less knowing something so positive has happened from something so sad.
