A CHARITY'S biggest ever fundraiser has become the inspiration for a book aimed at providing support for children who have lost a brother or sister through cot death.
Andrew's Rainbow is available to families supported by the Scottish Cot Death Trust'sand has been produced thanks to a great degree to the work of Wilma Carragher.
Ms Carragher, 54, is committed to helping others affected by the sudden, explained loss of a child.
She was unaware of the trust's work when her baby son Andrew died in September 1990 aged just four months.
Mrs Carragher and her husband had to explain to their elder sons Liam and Chris that Andrew had died. At the time there was nothing available to help them ease their children into this heart-breaking situation, or quell their confusion about their brother’s death.
Since then she has organised many fund-raising events which has raised nearly £30,000 for the the Trust and its work.
Every nine days in Scotland a baby or child will die of cot death and the majority of their families will never know why they died.
Last year Mrs Carragher and her sons Chris, 31, Liam, 28 and Jamie, 23, took part in a sponsored firewalk in her home town of Kinross to mark the 24th anniversary of Andrew's death and to raise money for the Andrew's Rainbow book.
She also raised funds for the book's predecessor Rory's Star, launched by the Trust, and aimed to help grief-stricken parents explain the death of a baby/child to their siblings. The book, aimed at young children, tells the story of a little girl who has just begun getting used to having a little brother when he passes away.
Andrew's Rainbow is aimed at supporting children born into a family after the death of a sibling.
And Mrs Carragher hopes that Andrew's Rainbow will help parents encourage their children to talk about something that is very difficult.
Her son Jamie, wrote the foreword in the book.
Mrs Carragher said: "For me it is about getting it out there, to help families, to make it easier for them if this happens.
"Andrew, my third son, was born three-and-a-half weeks early and was an undiagnosed breach delivery, so he had a pretty hard start.
"He had a lot of problems but things started to work out well. He was lovely and sadly one morning he just didn't wake up, he couldn't be woken up and after resuscitation he just slipped away. So cot death claimed his life."
Her third son Jamie was born two years later.
"Andrew's Rainbow is part of the 'next infant' support which the Trust do, which helps families to go on to have another child.
"Because when I had Jamie, I can still remember the fear. I did have a monitor, but the fear of coming home with your baby and thinking, wow, here we go again.
"So I am very much behind the Trust's 'next infant' support."
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