Bereaved Wigan family creates keepsake song in memory of their daughter

Kiki Deville, best known for her appearance on reality TV’s The Voice – has led the Keepsake Circle project at Derian House Children’s Hospice.

Nine families took part in the project providing a unique way to remember their child through a song that they can share with family and friends.

Kirsty Prescott and her husband Jonathon from Wigan worked with Kiki and Guss Powell to create Little Darling – a song dedicated to their baby daughter Iris Joy who passed away at just three weeks old after developing an infection.

Kirsty said: “The Keepsake Circle is such a unique experience – it has given us another opportunity to celebrate our daughter’s life and to continue her memory.

“Iris’ song highlights both the joy of having our daughter and the greatest sadness imaginable losing her too.

“We speak about Iris each day, so to have a song dedicated to our beautiful baby girl, solely on how amazing our Iris is, was and will always be, is heart-warming.

“When we heard Iris’s song we cried and somehow found ourselves smiling at the same time.

"Grief and joy can co-exist. I feel the everlasting love we feel for our Iris shines through and how proud we are to be Iris’s mummy and daddy.

"Our daughter is priceless and so is the gift of the Keepsake Circle.”

Richard Cornes and his wife Jo from Adlington, Chorley, also worked on a song to remember their daughter Sally, who passed away aged 14 after a brave four-year battle with cancer.

The family used Sally’s song – titled Name in Lights as the finale of Shine for Sally, an annual show held in memory of Sally which raised more than £5,000 for charities including Derian House in December.

Richard said: “To have a song written in memory of your child is one of the best things we have done as a bereaved family.

"We are so grateful to Derian for thinking about us because of Sally's love of music and dance.

"The words are just perfect ‘There’s nothing going to stop your dancing girl’.

"It is as if Sally is singing it to us. It makes us feel happy and if we need a pick-me-up we play Sally's Song.”

An official launch evening of the Keepsake Circle: Chapter 3 with live performances of the songs was held at the Mercure Dunkenhalgh Hotel in Blackburn for families who took part.

The song-writing sessions are particularly poignant for Kiki, patron of Derian House, whose baby son Dexter was cared for at the hospice during his short life.

Dexter, who was born with Zellweger Syndrome, died aged just one month and three days in 2007.

She was also recently the figurehead of Derian House’s “Say my Child’s Name” campaign that spoke with 70 bereaved families in a bid to tackle the stigma surrounding child loss.

The ground-breaking research undertaken by the charity last year found that more than eight out of 10 parents whose child has died said they feel sad that people don’t speak about their son or daughter.

The findings were used to create a digital “what to say and what not to say” guide to help people speak to friends who have experienced loss.

The campaign reached more than 800,000 people on social media.

Kiki said: “This project is my chance to remember Dexter whilst filling my heart with the memories of more beautiful children that sadly, the world can never meet now.

“When your child dies, after a while nobody says their name anymore, and that really hurts.

“The Keepsake Circle and our Say my Child’s Name campaign both have the same message.

"We want to remember our children and keep their memories alive.

"To a bereaved parent, their child’s name is the sweetest word in the whole world.”

Now in its third year, the Keepsake Circle has helped a total of 29 families and sees them sharing favourite memories of their child, which are then turned into songs by Kiki and her song-writing partner Guss.

You can stream the Keepsake Circle Chapter 3 on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2PBaGhRlJZP71eNMs6bH9i?si=MnEYSv6EQP-6ufY8CyIUbg

Or Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/the-keepsake-circle/1612316980

For more information and news about the project see @thekeepsakecircle on Instagram and www.thekeepsakecircle.co.uk