A grieving Watford couple have raised nearly £1,000 for a children’s air ambulance charity after their "beautiful, perfect baby girl" was stillborn just before Christmas.
Little Lucy Rose was "born sleeping" at 9.30am on December 5, weighing just 3lb 9oz.
Mum Kelly Allen-Darkes said: "On December 5 our beautiful daughter, Lucy Rose, was born sleeping.
"We were given the devastating news just over 24 hours before that mummy's placenta had ruptured and Lucy had not made it - Lucy was a perfectly happy, active baby and loved playing hide and seek with daddy whenever she could, everything about her was perfect and healthy.
"Our world fell apart in an instant, our beautiful perfect baby girl would be going with the angels instead of home with her mummy and daddy."
Three days later Kelly and Martin, Lucy’s dad, saw a donation box for Life’s Urgent Care for the Young (LUCY), which transfers critically ill children from hospitals to specialist units.
Kelly said: "In the days after losing Lucy, we visited the doctor on a number of occasions.
"On our first visit to the pharmacy, three days after saying goodbye, we spotted a donation pot with Lucy written on it - we felt that this was a sign that our daughter wanted us to help the charity with the same name and would now like to ask as many people as possible to help us with our support of them and the difference that they can make to so many children's lives."
LUCY is the UK’s first dedicated air ambulance service that transfers critically ill children from local hospitals to relevant specialist units throughout the UK.
Certain very ill babies and children require time critical access to specialist life saving support, which is not available to them locally. The Lucy Air Ambulance service works alongside the NHS, is provided at no cost to those children requiring hospital transfers by air, and is mobilised at the request of the senior medical staff co-ordinating their care.
Kelly and Martin have started a JustGiving page in memory of their daughter.
Already, the couple has raised £968 for LUCY through online and cash donations.
To donate visit www.justgiving.com/LucyRoseOliver/ and to learn more about LUCY www.lucyairambulance.org.uk/
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