Jakoah Pilapil and Harry Michael Collins

I was admitted to hospital on Saturday 2nd April 2022 at 19 weeks into a twin pregnancy. My waters broke that night and our beautiful daughter Olive had to be delivered, arriving at 2:43pm on Monday 4th April 2020. At 19weeks 4 days old, she was so beautiful and precious. Before she arrived, we were warned that she may not be alive or that she’d only have minutes to live, but she blessed us for 12 very special hours. The following day I was given a Bear of Hope dedicated to Jakoah Pilapil 11/11/21. It was such a comfort to hold Jakoah’s bear in the spot where I’d cuddled Olive just the night before.

I held tight onto that bear as we hoped and prayed that our other baby, Hazel, would keep going for another few weeks until she would be big enough to make it to the NICU. We swung so many times between hope and despair that week as I was bed bound and underwent various tests and scans. Sadly, it was not meant to be and our darling sweet daughter Baby Hazel was stillborn, joining her older little sister in heaven on Friday 8th April 2022, aged 20weeks 1 day. We received another bear donated on behalf of Harry Michael Collins 21/7/17.

It was heartbreaking to come home without our two precious babies, but we are very thankful to Bears of Hope. We keep our two bears next to us in bed and think of our special and loved girls. Unfortunately, there are too many people who know the pain of losing their beloved little ones but it comforted us to know that there is so much love and support for parents going through the most difficult time of their lives.