We want to give back to the community. Help others. Raise awareness and make a difference, wherever we can. And so, at the start of 2023 we asked our egg Facebook group for suggestions on a charity that we could really champion. We received lots of brilliant recommendations for our ‘egg charity of the year’ but there was one that stood out from the crowd. One that shone that little bit brighter and won the hearts of the egg community. It was SiMBA, Simpsons Memory Box Appeal.
The Edinburgh-based charity honours babies who have died and miscarried. It supports families who’ve experienced loss through gifting precious Memory Boxes and refurbishing Family Rooms within hospitals, as well as much needed remembrance activities and events. We couldn’t be more honoured to announce them as our official egg charity of the year.
SiMBA was founded in 2005 by a small group of bereaved parents and midwives at the Simpsons’ Maternity Unit in Edinburgh. They felt very strongly that parents who lost a baby should NEVER go home empty handed, with no memories of their child. One of those midwives was the charity’s CEO, Sara Fitzsimmons (pictured below).
“Twenty years ago, parents who experienced a loss were offered polaroid pictures in a brown envelope and sent home. This was unacceptable,” says Sara.
“We founded SiMBA so that bereaved parents could honour and make family memories with their cherished baby.”
Although co-founder Sara has stepped down from the NHS, she continues as a Registered Midwife supporting parents and speaking at study days, conferences and seminars. She’s passionate about bereavement care and getting it right for every parent, family, friend, healthcare professional and colleague. We salute you, Sara.
But it’s the beautifully made Memory Boxes, put together by volunteers, that are central to the care and support the charity provides. These Memory Boxes contain precious shared family moments and carefully chosen items such as clay imprint kits, birth acknowledgement certificates or a letter from another parent who has also experienced child loss. They sit at the heart of families for years after their loss. The boxes also provide that first important contact with SiMBA, as well as ongoing support should they need it.
The charity has already sent out over 4,000 Memory Boxes in 2023 and predicts another 8,000 will be requested by the end of the year. They need more funding to help meet demand.
As well as the boxes, SiMBA seeks to empower parents and help take away their fear. The Charity trains health professionals to encourage parents to hold and cuddle their new-born and create family memories that can never be taken away.
SiMBA really does make a difference. Through their partnership with hospitals and other charities, SiMBA create a pathway of support from the time of baby loss, ensuring parents and family members have ways to remember their baby and help to manage such indescribable trauma and grief.
To read more about SiMBA or to donate anything towards the charity, click here. As official egg charity of the year, egg will be donating £1 of every new egg card sold to the charity. #Givingmemories #KeepingSiMBASafe