Another busy morning at the Baby Bank. When we arrived the tables were piled high with donated clothes which were waiting for their second checks before being put away. Once those had been done, Sheila continued with this while Karen and Caroline took on the first checks. Meanwhile one of the other volunteers was busy picking out clothes for several referrals, which is what it's all about.

It was a wet start to the task so the first job was to help set up the refreshment tent. Sheila and Karen were the first goodgymers to arrive so got stuck in straight away.

Next to arrive was Jen who joined Sheila and Karen in their next job of putting electronic candles into candle bags, under the trees in an attempt to keep them dry.

100 bags were prepared so next they joined the team untangling the lights for festooning the memory tree. It was a delicate operation unknotting the fine wire string lights and Virgilus arrived in time to add them to the tree.

Before setting off on either a 2 5km or 5km walking route, the parents and siblings who had experienced baby loss, shared some readings to set us on our way.

Sheila, Karen and Virgilus stayed at the base to help prepare the medals and lanterns for the walkers return, whilst Jen joined the 5k walk to lead the way.

Thankfully the rain stopped by the time the walks started.

We met the 2.5k walkers at the bridge to head back onto Ray Mill Island together with a lantern procession.

Back at the tree and it was time for a couple more readings and personal reflections before set off on our journeys home.

Caroline, Carol and Karen visited the Baby Bank. Carol carried out second checks on the donated clothing, packing them into the correct boxes. Caroline and Karen were given four crates of school uniform which they sorted into labelled bags so that they could be easily put into the correct boxes later in the week. The task took up the entire session but felt like a job well done when the last crate was emptied.

Baby Bank regular volunteers Carol, Caroline, Karen and Sheila put in another busy shift. As ever, there was a huge pile on donations to be sorted and checked, double-checked and put away. Some clothes went out straight away to a family in need