Precious Wings - Wave of Light 2021

At Precious Wings we are passionate about helping families who are faced with the devastating loss of their child. We supply Memory Boxes to hospitals in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and these are given to families who lose a baby, of any gestation, and to families who lose a child, regardless of cause of death. We also supply miscarriage memory bags to early pregnancy units and emergency departments and provide free education sessions to hospital staff about caring for bereaved families. We have also recently started donating memory boxes to families where an adult is dying or has died, especially if there are children involved. We work with palliative care services in the hospital and the community and donate memory boxes to funeral homes and directly to families.

The creation of Precious Wings was driven by the experience of the loss of our own children and the strong belief that similarly bereaved families would benefit greatly from the support and comfort that the receipt of memory boxes would provide. We never imagined just how much those families would appreciate that support. The positive feedback has been overwhelming. Unfortunately, the need is great and our capacity is limited. Precious Wings currently relies heavily on community support, corporate donations and our own fundraising activities to maintain the service to hospitals and families. Also, many of our donations come from families who have received one of our memory boxes or from their own family or friends who have seen the comfort they provide.

We are the only charity we know of that donates memory boxes to hospitals when older children or adults pass away. We donate them to Emergency Departments, Paediatric Intensive Care Units, Children’s wards and Palliative Care Services. In particular, we work with the palliative care teams at Queensland Children’s Hospital and Gold Coast so they can provide our boxes when they first meet families whose child has sadly been given a terminal diagnosis. The boxes support nurses and social workers to start important conversations and provide a means for the family to start making memories early while their child is still alive.