Grieving family in Kensal Rise set up charity after son dies of cot death

Eddie Reid with his dad Chris (Image: Archant)

Edward Reid was only three months old when he died in April of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), formally known as Cot Death.

Eddie Reid with his mum Jen (Image: Archant)

His parents Jennifer and Christopher Reid went to check on him in the middle of the night and called an ambulance when they realised their first-born wasn’t breathing.

“It has been incredibly difficult and painful and we are trying to take each day as it comes at the moment,” said Mrs Reid. “At the hospital we decided we would make him proud in whatever we do. Teddy’s Wish won’t bring Eddie back but it will help others and that is a fitting way to honour him.”

The charity was set up in July to support other families and raise funds for research into SIDS, neonatal death and stillbirth.

To date they have raised over £85,000 for the Lullaby Trust, the leading SIDS charity and Sands, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity with all proceeds evenly between the two, funding three research projects.

More than 270 babies die suddenly and unexpectedly every year without reason and over 6,000 babies are stillborn.

“We set up the charity because we had this desperate need for answers. How could a perfectly healthy baby boy be taken from us? How could we not know? How could doctors not know in this day and age why this happened? Until we get answers, families need support and support is crucial at a time like this.”

Mrs Reid wrote a blog, lifeaftereddie.wordpress.com to help cope with the loss and tell her own harrowing story, “You can connect with people all over the world. There is such huge loss out there.”

Digital agency Cyber Duck volunteered to build the website.

She continues: “Doctors are just flummoxed. They do not know. Sometimes babies come back with a trace of infection but Eddie didn’t. We’re left with this perpetual ‘why’, which is the driving force for Teddy’s Wish.”

Visit www.teddyswish.org