CHILDREN from Donaghadee Primary School have helped raise almost £3,000 for a group which supports bereaved parents.
Eight year-old Cora Carlisle, the granddaughter of the late Hazel McCallister, and her school friends, took on the challenge of cycling from Donaghadee to Groomsport and back. It was one of the events organised by Hazel’s family to raise funds for the Forget Me Not focus group at the Ulster Hospital.
Hazel McCalister, who died in 2021, was a midwife at the Ulster for more than 40 years, and was passionate about supporting families experiencing the loss of a baby. Her family chose to honour her legacy by fundraising for the Forget Me Not group, which provides support to bereaved parents cared for by the South Eastern Trust.
Together, Hazel’s family raised £2,803; as well as granddaughter Cora and her Donaghadee Primary chums completing their cycle, her son Paddy, a keen Marathon runner, took on the Belfast City challenge in May.
Forget Me Not Focus Group’s Grace Coutts, whose daughter Rosa was born sleeping in 2019 added how much the donation meant: “This donation means everything to us as a group. It means we can help bereaved families and doing everything in the name of our wee children, who we have lost, means so much. We are very thankful to the McCalister family for thinking of us and their extremely kind generosity and fundraising efforts.”
The Forget Me Not group funds and manages the bereavement suite within the Ulster’s maternity unit and organises an annual family fun day and tree planting service in the ‘Forget Me Not’ woodland at Billy Neill Country Park, creating a peaceful place of remembrance close to the Ulster Hospital.
