The former Sands Lothian charity is now known as Held In Our Hearts.

A charity that supports bereaved parents has unveiled its new name.

From today, the former Sands Lothian charity will be known as Held In Our Hearts.

Along with the new name, the charity has rebranded with a new website and logo to highlight its core function – offering counselling and support to parents who have lost a child through stillbirth or neonatal death.

The charity has also announced it will be expanding its services in response to the increasing needs of bereaved families in the east of Scotland.

It will now offer support to parents in the Fife and Forth Valley NHS areas, as well as expanding its remit to include parents of babies lost at any stage of pregnancy or early childhood.

In 2019 Sands Lothian provided 575 befriending and 870 counselling sessions, compared to 211 befriending and 489 counselling sessions in 2016.

Nicola Welsh, Held In Our Hearts chief executive, said: “We are very excited about this next chapter in our identity announced today. We are growing as a charity and in turn our support services have expanded to meet the increasing needs of bereaved families.

“Held In Our Hearts now supports families who have experienced a loss at any stage and into early childhood and we want to ensure that these families feel included and can come to us for support.

“Held In Our Hearts is increasingly working at a national policy level and we are delighted to be expanding our specialist bereavement counselling into Fife and Forth Valley in partnership with the NHS boards, so the Lothians part of our name no longer reflects all our work.

“We recognise that this is a big change for us as a charity but we wanted to reflect who we are and the lived experience of our bereaved parents. We hold our own babies in our hearts, and we will continue to support bereaved families in the community in the same way and provide specialist bereavement care for them.”