Bereaved mother's fight to have unloved memorial to lost babies restored
When Allie Britnell went to Longden Cemetery, Shrewsbury, to see the plaque commemorating her daughter Samantha - one of the children who died without funerals at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in the 1970s - she was heartbroken to see it cracked and the garden around it unloved and overgrown.
When her baby died soon after she was born, 43 years ago, Allie says Samantha was taken away from her immediately and she was taken back to the maternity ward, where other mothers were cradling their own babies.
Aged just 19, she went home with no idea of what happened to her little girl or even that there was a memorial that she could visit.
It was only when she talked with a friend whose baby had also died that she was told of the memorial.
Now Allie and friend, Karen Wright-Dickens, who lost her daughter Katie, are at the forefront of an appeal to raise funds to renew the plaque and also to get a group together to help care for it.
The online fundraiser, at gofundme.com/f/a-memorial-to-the-babies-of-shrewsbury-hospital, has already raised £270 and Allie and her family hope more will be donated to do justice to the memorial.
Allie, who lives in Wellington, said: "When Samantha was born they said her disabilities were such that she wouldn't survive and she was wheeled out. It was a time when you were told 'you will get over it' and they would make sure the baby's body would be taken care of. And when you went home no one talked about it.
"It doesn't make it any easier of course but thank goodness that today parents can hold their baby and say goodbye properly.
"In our days the babies were known simply as the Copthorne babies or Copthorne angels but they weren't treated as either."
She said her two younger daughters Corrine and Shana were incredible and so supportive.
"I've always talked about Samantha and think of her all the time, what she would have done, whether she would have been like Corrine or Shana or a mix of the two."
On a previous visit to the cemetery Allie and Karen did their best to tidy up the memorial.
"But when I went back last week and saw the stone cracked and it so overgrown it was soul-destroying.
"I'm so grateful to everyone that has offered support. I am hoping that we can get a group of people that can go and tidy it up ready for a new plaque. It is going to mean so much for the mothers of babies who didn't survive."
