Baby loss memorial garden in Sheerness
Published
Thursday 15 October, 2026
Updated
Thursday 15 October, 2026
*Discusses sensitive topics including baby loss.
A very special memorial will be opening in Sheerness soon.
Swale Borough Council is working with the East Kent Baby Memorial Garden Charity to install a baby memorial board in the Beachfields seafront garden.
The memorial garden will give people touched by pregnancy and baby loss somewhere special to visit, reflect and remember - whenever, wherever, and however, their loss.
The board is being provided by the charity and will display personalised terracotta tiles, featuring a name and significant date, in the garden area near the leisure centre in Sheerness.
The charity, which hosts events, spreads awareness and offers support to families, currently have over 600 baby names recorded across their locations in Sittingbourne, Faversham, Ashford, Margate and Canterbury.
The tiles for the new Sheerness memorial board can be ordered for £40, from the charities’ website. The money raised supports the charity’s important work.
This news comes during Baby Loss Awareness Week (9-15 October) where anyone touched by baby loss can come together to remember and commemorate their much-loved and missed babies.
The awareness week culminates in the global “Wave of Light” event taking place tonight (15 October).
Families from across the world are invited to light a candle at 7pm and leave it burning for at least one hour to remember all babies that have died too soon.
Cllr Hannah Perkin, chair of the Housing, Health and Communities Committee, said:
“We are incredibly proud to be partnering with this amazing charity again to install the third baby memorial garden in Swale, creating a space on Sheppey for families to remember their special babies.
“This week is Baby Loss Awareness Week, which aims to give anyone touched by pregnancy and baby loss a safe and supportive space to share their experiences and feel that they are not alone.
“The awareness week calls for people to talk about pregnancy and baby loss in order to help bereaved families find and access the support they need.”
Chris Twydell, Volunteer Treasurer for East Kent Baby Memorial Garden charity, said:
“Within the gardens we have boards with tiles remembering more than 600 of our special babies, with their name and a significant date.
“The gardens also help to raise awareness of the numbers of babies who die. Every day 14 babies are stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy, or die within their first few weeks, that is one every 100 minutes, or over 5,000 a year.
“A further 250,000 babies are lost to miscarriage each year - more than one in five pregnancies ends in a loss. Our garden is there to remember every one of those special babies.
“One of the main events of Baby Loss Awareness week is the Wave of Light, an international event that creates a wave around the globe, all aimed at supporting families and raising awareness of baby loss.”
For more information, support and self-care advice visit: Support for you – Baby Loss Awareness Week.
