LOOSING a child is the single hardest thing a parent will ever go through but one Basingstoke mum is using her experience to help struggling families.
Three years ago parents Frankie and Josh Quintela lost their beautiful baby boy Elih when he was just 21 months old.
After coming to terms with their grief, three years later they launched a cupcake business his honour.
Elihscupcakes is now providing hundreds of families across Basingstoke with food during the school holidays.
Last Wednesday (October 21) Labour’s bid to extend free school meals over the holidays until Easter 2021, was defeated by 261 votes to 322 – majority 61.
Basingstoke has a total of 2,535 children entitled to free school meals, which is the same amount as many Northern and London constituencies.
Frankie told the Gazette: “If I can help give some children a full stomach with some well deserved treats then I’ve done my job.
“I saw everything in the media about Marcus Rushford’s campaign and I thought what better way to help out than giving out some desserts.
“People can message me on my Facebook page, I take their address and we arrange collection or a delivery.”
Thanks to Frankies efforts over 100 struggling families have been provided with delicious deserts this week.
Unfortunately Frankie and husband Josh know all too well what it is like to struggle financially.
After their son passed away things spiralled for the couple: “We lost everything, we lost our house, we lost our cars, we lost money.
“We had nothing we were scraping from the bottom of the barrel, we’ve been in the situation where we had to borrow money off of my mum just to get food shop for a week."
The couple are now rebuilding their lives after spending a short period living with Frankies mum.
“Me and my husband know what it’s like to struggle and we are now coming out of that. It is our time to give back and help other people that are struggling.”
The couple from Sherfield Park want their business to be about more than just making profit.
“Obviously a bonus of having a businesses is making money, but it’s not purely why I do this, I want to be able helping people as well.”
The couple have previously helped charities such as Jack’s Place, Naomi House and Friends of PICU.
To find out more about Elihscupcakes click here.
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