Memorial service to be held for families affected in baby ashes scandal
A memorial service for families affected by Shropshire's baby ashes scandal will give parents a chance to remember their children as children, according to a campaigner.
The service is scheduled to take place at Shrewsbury Abbey on September 12.
Glen Perkins, founder of the Action for Ashes campaign group, said the idea behind the service was to give parents a chance for some closure.
He said: "It is going to be a memorial service for the kids. Up until now all we have really done is talked about baby ashes and remains. We have not really addressed the children as children and this is a bit of time to remember them and kind of use this as a part of closure for some parents."
Mr Perkins said that for some parents their child's original funeral still feels unfinished.
He said: "It can get a bit lost in it. For a time there I was thinking of my daughter as remains and she was not, she was a very much loved child.
"I think we need to remember them in a positive way and I think the key thing I wanted to do was bring the parents to a place like the Abbey and say "this is where your child really is" and hopefully they can believe they are in a better place.
"For a lot of us they had a funeral but there was no end. That funeral is still open for a lot of people, but I think a memorial service will, I hope, give people a chance to have some closure.
"It is a chance for remembrance rather than fighting."
An independent inquiry carried out by Shropshire Council found that more than 50 parents did not receive ashes after their children were cremated at Emstrey Crematorium.
The scandal has led to the Justice Minister, Caroline Dinenage pledging to change the law governing cremations in England.
Mr Perkins, whose four-month-old daughter Olivia died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 2007, was one of a group of parents who travelled to Downing Street to meet the minister earlier this year.
