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The Wave of Light is an annual event during Baby Loss Awareness Week where we

come together to remember our special babies. Our event will be on Sunday 10

October 2021 from 3-4pm.


This year it will be held indoors at St Mary’s Church, Tufton St, Churchyard, Ashford TN23 1QG. The venue is used regularly for concerts and is set up for events such as this, with toilets, seats and heating. The nearest car park is Vicarage Lane (TN23 1QD), just two minutes away.


Everyone is welcome including children, family and friends. We are limited to a maximum of 250 people, so we are asking you to book your spaces in advance, to allow us to manage numbers. Please book by following the link below.

From 2.30pm everyone will have the chance to design a special heart to put on our memory tree. We will provide the hearts and pens etc. We are not allowed any lit candles in the venue but we will give everyone a LED tealight to hold during the event and take home afterwards. This will be a non-religious event which will include readings and music with an opportunity for all the children to come to the front to sing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ together. During the event, we will be remembering the names of each of the 330 special babies remembered in our Garden, and there will also be a time for reflection.


The event will finish around 4pm and you are welcome to visit the Ashford Baby Memorial Garden before or afterwards – it is just five minutes’ walk from St Mary’s. Other Waves of Light, including some virtual ones, will be taking place across the country, and there may be others in Kent. Details should be available on the main BLAW website

https://babyloss-awareness.org/wave-of-light/


Baby Loss Awareness Week takes place each year between 9 and 15 October. The week also helps raise awareness of baby loss and the fact that around 14 babies are stillborn each day in the UK and around one in five pregnancies ends in a miscarriage.


You are also welcome to join a Wave of Light at home, by lighting a candle for one hour on 15 October.


Lights of Love Service

On Sunday 4 December we will be holding our first ever ‘Lights of Love’ service at Ashford Baptist Church, St John’s Lane, Ashford TN23 1PS. Details will be available on our website and Facebook page nearer the time, but this will be a special baby remembrance event with a Christmas theme. Again, everyone is welcome and we will update with more information closer to the time.

12-4pm - Ashford Baby Memorial Garden.


Just a reminder that the picnic will be on Sunday 4 July on the grass next to the Ashford Baby Memorial Garden. We have taken account of Covid and will have plenty of hand sanitiser available but we must ask anyone with any Covid symptoms not to come and for everyone to follow the current social distancing guidelines. Just bring along your picnic and something to sit on.

The timetable for the afternoon is:


• 12 noon onwards – families arrive

• 12.30 onwards – optional sponsored walk around the edge of the park (approx. 400m each lap).

• 1-3pm Dizzy the Clown children’s entertainer with a variety of covid-safe entertainment

• 4pm event ends


During the afternoon we will have our memory tree and wooden teddy bears and hearts for messages. We will bring pens etc., but feel free to bring your own felt tips if you would prefer. We will have our bubble machine and some games and activities, but please make sure children sanitise their hands before and after using them.


We hope to take a few photos during the afternoon for publicity and our website and other social media, but if you would prefer not to be included, please tell us!


The sponsored walk/toddle/scoot is entirely optional and is open to adults and children. We are not expecting anyone to do more than one or two laps! If you would like a copy of the sponsored walk form, please click here. https://www.eastkentbabymemorialgardens.org.uk/post/teddy-bears-picnic-2021


To help us with the planning, it would be great if you could give us approximate numbers of people expected to come along to the picnic - feel free to let us know via Facebook, messenger or by filling in our Contact Form. This is just to give us a rough idea of overall numbers, thanks!


Last weekend we had a fantastic day with our Smiley Face Tombola in Ashford Town Centre. This was our first Tombola in Ashford in 18 month, due to all our events last year having to be cancelled. We had a busy day and raised a fantastic £391 from the Tombola and donations.


Many thanks to everyone who supported us on the day.


We also want to say a big thank you to our volunteers. We think they fully deserved their ice cream break after a hot sunny day of raising money and awareness!


Please keep an eye on our blog and website for details of upcoming fundraising events.




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