Steph and Donny Mitchell set out to ensure cemeteries were visited across the area, with gifts left on the graves of young ones.
Parents in West Lothian made sure ‘even children who have left us’ got a visit from Santa this year, after losing their own daughter.
Steph and Donny Mitchell set out to ensure cemeteries were visited across the area, with gifts left on the graves of young ones.
They lost their daughter Kerris on January 4, 2023, when she was only two. She went to bed her ‘cheeky self’, before Steph and Donny went in to check on her and realised she wasn’t breathing.
Paramedics were called to the Bathgate house, though Kerris was ‘already gone’. Now, almost two years later, Steph and Donny are bringing a bit of comfort to other families.
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Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Steph said: “There’s a lot of parents who had a younger child pass away and they never got to meet Santa.
“They’ve been finding it heart-warming that their baby can get a visit from Santa, I think it’s a comfort for people.
“Some parents find it hard to come down to the cemeteries to see their little ones, and if they see that Santa has been to visit them it might make it that little bit easier.
“It’s also given us the kick up the backside that we’ve needed to get out and do it, because this year has been hard for us. We’ve struggled a lot with missing Kerris this December.
“It’ll be two years in January since she passed. It’s been really challenging, and we’ve found it harder to get things done this year.”
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The couple also find comfort in bringing a bit of joy to the area, knowing that Kerris will ‘never be forgotten’. The family continue to bring gifts to her gravestone, and admit this year has been ‘really difficult for them’.
Steph continued: “I think a lot of parents in our situation are probably feeling quite lost. You see families being so joyful and happy at Christmas time.
“Even for us, we’ve got children, but that one child is missing so Christmas doesn’t feel the same. Our kids are so excited for Christmas and they love it, but it just feels a little different now.
“For me personally, I feel like people just forget about Kerris apart from me and Donny and the kids. It’s really difficult. Our main aim is not only to make other parents feel a bit less alone, but to make sure they know that people are still thinking about their wee ones. Their babies aren’t forgotten.
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“Our kids really missed their sister this year, so it’s been tough for them. We leave a candy cane, so it’s essentially environmentally friendly – no plastic or anything. We were originally going to do little reindeer or snowmen but we didn’t want the children’s graves overrun with plastic.
“Our children have already said to us that when we get too old to do it, they’re going to take it over. Through the years we just keep adding wee bits here and there. We’ll probably do something for Easter next. It keeps our minds busy, it really does help us.”
After they’d visited the cemeteries, Steph added: “We met a few families who reminded us exactly why we do what we do.
“It’s really difficult visiting all the little ones graves, but it’s been really comforting to see the difference we have made to some families this Christmas time.”
After Kerris’ passing, her family were left with questions when pathologists told them she had died from Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood following an inconclusive post-mortem. However, after meeting with genetic doctors, Steph and Donny were told there was a very strong chance that she had suffered a seizure.
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Kerris was born with an extra chromosome, as were two of her brothers, and while her parents though she would ‘grow to be happy and healthy like they are’ it’s thought her tiny body was unable to recover from the seizure – which is believed to be connected to her extra chromosome.
The Mitchells have all struggled since Kerris passed away, especially before getting some answers as to how she died. While doctors were unable to ‘100 per cent’ confirm, they were able to give the family some closure.
Mum Steph said: “We did get answers, eventually they’re not solid answers, they can’t tell us 100 per cent. They’re pretty sure so Kerris had an extra chromosome, and two of her brothers have got the same extra chromosome, so we thought she was going to kind of grow up to be happy and healthy like they are. One of our sons suffers from seizures like epilepsy due to the chromosome.
“The night that Kerris went to sleep they thought she had a seizure and that she just couldn’t bring herself out of it. It was just due to the extra chromosome and that she could have grown up to experience epilepsy, and that it was just an unfortunate event that happened during the night.
“We sat down with genetic doctors and things and went through an exome analysis, which goes through all of our genetics. It was really good to have that opportunity to be able to try and get answers, and it brought us a bit of closure. The NHS tried so hard to get us some answers because it was haunting us.”
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