A WIGTOWNSHIRE mum is organising a charity ball in memory of her son, ten years after his birth.
Frances Doherty gave birth to Charlie back in 2014, however he was sadly stillborn.
Following her loss, Frances and her husband Roger were supported by the stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands. Now to mark what would have been Charlie’s tenth birthday in October, Frances is organising a ball which will also act as a fundraiser for the charity.
She said: “I’ve always known that I’ve wanted to do something else to mark a milestone like his tenth birthday. So I’ve been thinking about it on and off for a wee while and I decided to have the ball. Sands used to have a ball every two years but they stopped doing that because of covid and other things, however I decided that I would quite like to do something like that for Charlie’s birthday.”
The glitzy event, which will take place at GG’s Yard, is already a sellout with 200 people set to turn out in their finery on October 26 to support the charity, for which Frances has volunteered as a befriender since 2018.
She added: “I did my befriending training so I am now part of the charity.
“It’s largely based in Dumfries and I am the only one out this side of the region.
“I have visited two or three people around about me who have experienced still births.
“There is still a lot of taboo around baby loss, and I think people don’t want to talk about dead babies and that’s understandable. However, the people who have had them want their name to be mentioned and want to talk about them.
“And that’s very much one of the reasons for having an event like this, to raise awareness of the charity and the fantastic work that they do, but also for me it’s about celebrating the fact that Charlie was here and that we miss him still.”
