TRUSTEES

CRADLE is supported by a team of Trustees across the UK. With a wide range of skills, interests and commercial experience, the team work closely together to ensure CRADLE charity objectives are met.

LOUISE

Louise Zeniou

Chair and Charity Lead

As the Founder and Chair of CRADLE Charity, I lead a national team of volunteers who support the delivery of our charitable objectives to bring comfort and support to anyone affected by early pregnancy loss.

I have 16 years experience of working for corporate PLCs and more recently as a self-employed consultant supporting the growth of businesses and charities via income generation and partnership development. My passion includes connecting people, growing communities, and working with healthcare professionals and employers to support their bereavement services.

My Journey

When trying to conceive it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t get pregnant or that once I become pregnant, that something would go wrong.

My focus whilst trying to get pregnant was simply to remember to take my prenatal tablets, think of baby names and to have pregnancy tests ready at home. I didn’t over think things and carried on with day to day life with a hugely stressful job. It was around 9pm one evening in May 2015 that I found out I was pregnant at the GP on call centre in Southport. I knew due to my physical symptoms that something was wrong and I knew not to get excited.

The same evening I was admitted to the Gynaecology Ward at Ormskirk hospital, and following the diagnosis of an ectopic pregnancy I received care as an outpatient. On the 20th May 2015, I became unwell at home and collapsed, I called and ambulance and four hours later had surgery to remove my left fallopian tube and my baby.

Over the next 18 months, I changed my career and joined the Ormskirk Hospital bereavement team as a volunteer, providing patient insight to healthcare professionals to support their bereavement services at Ormskirk Hospital. Using my own experience as a patient during my ectopic pregnancy, I started a small project called My Ectopic Pregnancy (@EctopicMy – Twitter) and pledged to donate 10 Bags of toiletries to Ormskirk Hospital for other women admitted for Ectopic Pregnancy. The national support for this project led to the creation of the Ambassador role, support was extended to women experiencing any type of pregnancy loss and the project became an organisation called CRADLE.

CRADLE was introduced to healthcare professionals from across the North West on the 16th July 2019 at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital Baby Loss Conference. The first official CRADLE service was launched for bereaved parents in September 2019 at Ormskirk Hospital and over the following 12 months the team grew to 90 Volunteers and launched a further 40 NHS CRADLE services across the UK.

We provide a range of resources and services for healthcare professionals to support their bereavement services for women and partners before, during or following confirmed pregnancy loss.

Follow me
Twitter @CradleLouise

Contact me
louise@cradlecharity.org

Annmarie Jackson

Relationship Director

My role within CRADLE focuses on mobilising new NHS CRADLE sites and managing the recruitment process of new Ambassadors. I also provide extended family member insight sessions to healthcare professionals during training and teaching sessions. I am able to reflect and share my experience during my daughters hospital admission due to an Ectopic Pregnancy and my experience, during her hospital care.
 
My experience 
I have spent most of my career in the legal and property arena with an emphasis on managing relationships within HR and recruitment settings. This experience has been valuable in my role as Relationship Director for CRADLE.
I work closely with bereaved employees to support their journey back to work following pregnancy loss.
 
As a previous Employer, I understand the duty of care Employees have towards Employees and advise how to create a comfortable and compassionate return to work experience following pregnancy loss.
 
Follow Me
Twitter @CradleAnnmarie 

Contact me
annmarie@cradlecharity.org 
Kay image

Kay Crewdson

Media Director

As Media Director for CRADLE, I am the first point of contact for all Media enquiries as well as working with NHS Communications Teams to provide a clear message about CRADLE services and projects 
 
Before joining CRADLE, I enjoyed a career in Television/Radio production and presenting. As a trained broadcast meteorologist and journalist, I love nothing more than being behind a mic and regularly represent CRADLE on Podcasts or Radio.
 
My Journey
My partner Jim and I lost our first baby in 2017, a baby we named Reg. I opted to have medical management at Stepping Hill hospital. I felt alone, sad, isolated. I was unsure of where to turn to during this period of emotional pain.
 
Not long fter we lost Reg, my good friend Steve and I made a radio documentary, “The Emptiness Within”, which describes the feeling I felt when I walked away without Reg. We interviewed some incredibly brave women, both Jim and I took part and shared our own experience. The result being an honest account of the pain of losing a baby. Our intention was to keep the conversation about miscarriage going and through BBC Sounds it can be downloaded and played at any time by anyone which, in my humble opinion, means the #miscarriage conversation carries on https://bbc.in/2INuCE6
 
In 2019 I met Louise Zeniou and we realised very quickly that we shared the same hope for other women or couples affected by early pregnancy loss. I joined CRADLE to launch our early pregnancy loss service at Stepping Hill and was invited to join the team of Trustees.
 
CRADLE is a Family. A safe place, offering interactive peer support, offering an opportunity for anyone affected by baby loss to put their own pain to purpose, or to compliment bereavement services in their workplace.
 
Away from CRADLE I co-host a podcast … PlanIt Mum. For me talking has always helped and so I wanted to share my motherhood journey, including reflections of being a mum after a loss. Jim and I lost our second baby, Star, on Father’s Day 2020.
 
You can follow my journey
www.planitmum.com/podcast-1

Follow me
Twitter @kcrewders 

Contact me
kay@cradlecharity.org 
dawn

Dawn Brown

Compliance and Regulatory Director

As the Safeguarding and Compliance Director for CRADLE Charity, and Company Director for CRADLE Consultancy, I am the designated person within the charity with primary responsibility for implementing policies and procedures to safeguard across the organisation, including supporting Ambassadors and Trustees. Alongside CRADLE, I am a fulltime Management Accountant for a Toy Importer & Exporter, I bring with me 24 years of financial experience which supports my role as charity Treasurer.
 
My Journey
In December 2012, I suffered a ruptured ectopic pregnancy in which I was admitted to A&E at Basildon Hospital and into trauma surgery for removal of my left fallopian tube. My husband and I were aware I was 8 weeks pregnant but the trauma that I suffered that day and the lengthy healing process for my body that followed in the next 6 months, overtook any grieving for the loss of our baby.
 
Sadly, the effects of the ruptured ectopic and the events of that day left me with PTSD.  This did not show itself until about 18 months later and was quite a shock. I was lucky enough to have private medical healthcare and access to counselling as soon as I needed it, where I had EMDR therapy alongside talking therapy. I realised that not everyone would be in the same position that I was in, with access to counselling as soon as they needed it and this was one of the driving forces behind joining CRADLE at the outset.
 
I first heard about CRADLE on Instagram in June 2019 and saw a post that Louise Zeniou had made, requesting toiletries for a new project. I jumped at the chance to get involved with the desire to take CRADLE to Essex, where I have now launched CRADLE in three Hospitals with a team of local Ambassadors. 
Quickly my role within CRADLE developed, and a few months after joining, I was invited to speak and lead focus groups at a Symposium for Early Pregnancy Loss at Imperial College London, engaging with 75 junior doctors and specialists.
 
I was Invited to join CRADLE as Trustee shortly after this, working closely with Founder and Chair Louise Zeniou to implement and create processes for our ideas and strategy, together, with the support of the rest of the Trustees we have created a Family and a financially viable Charity with low overheads and the opportunity to make positive change to the experience women and couples have during or following early pregnancy loss.
 
My objective is to break down the stigma that surrounds early pregnancy loss and helping others in finding their voice to express their emotions with family, friends or work colleagues. I enjoy public speaking and engaging with our team of CRADLE Healthcare Professional Ambassadors, who work along Trustees to deliver their own CRADLE services in their own hospitals.
 
Follow Me
Twitter @CradleDawn 
 
Contact Me 
dawn@cradlecharity.org 
Leanna Brace

Leanna Brace

Trustee

By way of introductions my name is Leanna Brace and I am a specialist nurse at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital.

I have worked in Women’s Health for 16 years and feel passionate about delivering exceptional care for those suffering from early pregnancy loss. ​I am motivated to make what is a really distressing journey a more bearable experience, one step at a time. 

The CRADLE charity is important to me because it helps bridge the gap in care, not just in different departments within the ​hospital, but also among multiple ​hospitals across the country. Therefore, bestowing unity for ​the care of women and people experiencing early pregnancy loss. CRADLE is a nationwide service that offers many ideas and positive changes, helping to ensure care is paramount and providing ongoing emotional support. I initially started as an ambassador by promoting CRADLE into my hospital Trust. I have used this platform to propose new projects such as better care environments, education and provided continuity of care within multiple disciplinary teams and departments. CRADLE has helped educate new nurses and supported students​within women’s services. This has blossomed their confidence to care for grieving families, which in turn ​provides positive experiences for ​our services users.

I believe exceptional care should be free and available to all. 

Every pregnancy matters.

Martin Abrams

Martin Abrams

Trustee

I currently lead the spiritual care and chaplaincy service at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital Trust. I have been involved with CRADLE since the early days, first meeting Louise on a Hospital Bereavement Focus Group which was set up to create ways of improving our patients’ experience following a pregnancy or baby loss.

CRADLE has become a significant part of how we support mums and families following a loss. Through my role I offer person centred support to people, be it spiritual, non-religious or religious depending on the context. I am also involved in planning gathered events which include individual funerals, the annual Sunflower Planning Ceremony, Wave of Light Events and Annual Baby and Child Remembrance events.

Since 1999 I have been involved in the development and delivery of the monthly Our Babies service, which is a supportive event for families following an early pregnancy loss. As well as the offering of a service it has included the development of a baby garden at two crematoriums and at Ormskirk Hospital.

The service is held each month and anyone experiencing an early pregnancy loss are invited, along with their families. Cradle is important to me as it supports the aims I have always tried to aspire to since the first time I offered support to a family following a baby loss in 1988. Over the years I have held various roles within faith communities, and University and Hospital Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy Services. I have always aspired to offer care appropriate to the circumstances.