AFTER battling through the bereavement process for her stillborn child, a Basingstoke woman is looking to launch a charity to support those going through similar situations.

Leanna Pugsley was nearly 30 weeks pregnant when her daughter Leia Violet Pugsley arrived as stillborn.

When it came to the difficult task of arranging Leia’s funeral, the 32-year-old found that getting personalised items for her daughter was quite difficult.

She told The Gazette: “It is a quite hard a process to go through anyway, but when I was looking at the options for Leia I didn’t really like any that were being offered.

“You are then in an even more awkward position as you can’t really decorate anything which is offered.”

It was from this experience Leanna set up From Leia with Love.

The idea is to provide a variety of urn decoration kits, keepsakes and bonding items to hospitals, and directly to parents, free of charge – while raising awareness of the little things families can do to adjust to the pain of losing a child.

Leanna added: “Stillborn births are still such a taboo subject, and a lot of what my family went through we didn’t even think about.

“The idea of the charity is to make this process as easy as possible for people who are going through the grieving process.”

She added: “We have already started talking to hospital wards about how to address the issue and provide keep-sakes for the families.”

The day after Leia’s funeral, Leanna set up a Facebook page and so far 62 dresses have been donated for adaptation during sewing sessions at Purple Stitches in Basingstoke.

Leanna and family friend Holly are looking to raise £5,000 to become a registered charity.

To help or for more information, go to justgiving.com/crowdfunding/fromleiawithlove.