Three bereaved mums took part in a skydive in memory of the children they had lost raising thousands of pounds.

Nicky Foxley, Rachel Bayley and Mary Parlett, who all lost a child in the same three-month period in 2021, recently took part in a tandem skydive at Hinton in the Hedges Skydiving centre.

The three children, Elara, Zac and Neve, were all cared for by Helen & Douglas House, who help families cope with the challenges of looking after a terminally ill baby or child who will die prematurely.

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The three mums have raised £10,575 so far, after the sky dive on Sunday, March 24.

Ms Bayley from Wallingford said: “We lost our beautiful Son, Zac. He was just two years old.

"It was sudden and unexpected and our lives went into heartbreaking turmoil.

"At the hospital, we were made aware of a place for Zac at Helen & Douglas House.

"Of course we had heard of Helen & Douglas House but ashamedly we were not fully aware of what they did.

"I can only describe them as angels on this earth.

"We stayed there with Zac for several days after he had passed away and they were so dignified and supportive.

"They made sure we ate, drank and did stuff with Zac to keep treasured keepsakes. “

Ms Foxley, from Henley, said: "I sadly lost my wonderful daughter Elara in March 2021 after her brave and courageous battle with a rare childhood cancer.

"Her loss has unequivocally thrown my life into sadness and difficulty.

"The grief process is extremely tough to handle – and losing Elara is something I will be attempting to deal with every single day for the rest of my life."

She added: "Being able to talk, safely and openly, with other people who were experiencing the same heart ache, trauma and tragic loss, parents that understood the dark, challenging and difficulties day to day was something that helped me in a totally different way."

Ms Parlett from Didcot said: “We lost our beautiful daughter Neve suddenly on March 12 2021.

"Our whole world was turned upside down in a split second.

"This is when we first found ourselves being supported by the incredible Helen & Douglas House hospice.

"Helen & Douglas House have been invaluable to us as a family and has helped to pull us through some of our darkest day by way of face-to-face counselling sessions and telephone support and more importantly we connected with families who were going through the same horrific life-changing ordeal as us, we were not alone in this nightmare.

"We have made lifelong best friends with two families who lost their beautiful son Zac and daughter Elara within the same 3-month period we lost Neve."