UPDATE:

Firstly, thank you for all your very kind messages and your donations in honour of our baby girl Angelica.

John and I are overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and support. We feel very blessed to have so many amazing friends and family to help us get through what has been the toughest time of our lives and your donations to support our cause has meant the world to us. 

Thanks to each and every one of you, we have raised enough money for 4 cuddle cots in only a couple of days. 

We have already begun the process of donating 3 cuddle cots and will keep the fundraiser going so we are able to place the next order with the 4th and hopefully more. As the cots come from the UK, the process can take months for shipments to be delivered. Luckily, there is a pre-order arriving next week which had just enough for us to allocate the 3 cots. 

We will be forever grateful to you all, thank you!!! 

ANGELICA TSOUTSA

Our sweet angel in heaven, born peacefully asleep on the 11th February 2021. 

On the 10th of February at a weekly routine check in, our world was turned upside down. It was the day we found out our babies heart had stopped beating. It was the day our lives changed forever.

It was a textbook perfect pregnancy, we had heard our healthy angels heart beat just 7 days prior during our last check in. How could this be? We had everything prepared months in advance for the arrival of our little bub and were only 4 weeks away from starting a new chapter in our lives with our first born baby. 

We were 36 weeks, so close. 

The 11th of February was the day we finally got to meet our baby. This date will now always be Angelicas birthday and passing date. It wasn't until giving birth that we found out we had a beautiful girl. We had no idea what would exactly happen after delivering Angelica, we didn't know what to expect in terms of what would be possible with how much time we would have to spend with our girl. It was then that we found out about the Cuddle Cot, we were lucky enough to be at a hospital that had one.

This meant the world to us. Without the cuddle cot, we wouldn't have been able to create the memories we did in the time we had. We were able to take full advantage knowing she was with us and it helped heal our hearts in that moment. 

We are very passionate about raising our goal of $13,000 in the hopes of being able to donate 2 cuddle cots to hospitals that don't have one available, which pains us to know that there are families out there who did not and may not get the same opportunity that we did. 

It costs $6,500 per cuddle cot, which is a cooling system that lays beneath the baby within a bassinet. It enables families to keep their baby close and create the memories we were able to, spending as much time as they wish before saying goodbye. This reduces the worry of distress of separation to keep handing their baby back to hospital staff.

Every family deserves to spend time with their babies after birth to tell them stories, introduce to family members, give their babies as many cuddles and kisses as possible, take photos, observe all their features, play songs and share all that you can in the limited time you have when you're in this situation. We will forever be grateful for being able to do all those things and more thanks to the amazing cuddle cot.

Stillbirth is something that seems so rare, but after having this happen to us and having others open up to us we have learned that it happens more frequently than we realise. In fact, 6 babies are born still each day in Australia. 

We want to raise money in honour of our baby girl Angelica and for all those who never got their chance at life too. There is nothing we can do to help reduce the number of still births but we can help families in need that are suffering through this pain.

With many thanks,

John & Melanie Tsoutsa