Wedding dresses become gowns for stillborn babies

Six years ago, Mandy Joubert could only stand by helplessly as her son’s child was stillborn.

A self-confessed doting mother who would “fix everything” for her three children, the 61-year-old from Nantwich, Cheshire, was “devastated”.

To deal with her grief, she spent two years crocheting little blankets for other newborn babies who had died and would donate them to hospitals.

But she wanted to do more and would often remember the image of her grandson, Macsen, wearing a “tiny little hospital gown”.

“He was this perfect, little, beautiful boy and it would have been so lovely if someone came to us with a little gown,” she said.

“For people in that situation, it would be quite heartwarming to know somebody else had taken the trouble to ease a little bit of their pain.”

She set up her charity Daisy-Mae Angel Gowns in 2020, shortly before the first Covid lockdown, and started turning donated wedding dresses into beautiful gowns for grieving parents, who would dress their babies in them.

Mrs Joubert said her first experience taking apart a wedding dress was “overwhelming”, adding: “I’m not a trained seamstress or anything, I just taught myself.”

In her first six months, she worked on 150 wedding dresses, with each one taking nine hours of work.

The gowns are donated to hospitals across the UK, sent in a clear, resealable bag along with a blanket and two crocheted hearts - one for the parents to keep and another to stay with the babies when they are laid to rest in their gowns.

She makes sure the woman who donated wedding dress is kept up to date with the progress and tags them in pictures on Facebook when the gowns are completed.

Mrs Joubert recently created her 1,000th gown - a milestone she never thought she would reach.

“I bawled my little heart out because I felt so proud of what I achieved because I do it all myself, I don’t have any helpers and I don’t get any funding,” she said.

“But it also broke my heart that I had to start it in the first place, that this was needed.”

Mrs Joubert, who has a grandson who has just turned 18, said she had gone through more than 250 donated wedding dresses since starting the charity.

“That’s 250 ladies who have done something so special. It’s just incredible,” Mrs Joubert added.

“Without these ladies donating their beautiful dresses, each with their own stories, I wouldn’t be able to achieve what I have.”

She was unsure whether she could reach the 2,000 mark but said she would continue for as long as possible for the grieving families and as an enduring tribute to Macsen.

“He’ll be remembered for many years - forever,” she said.

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