Have you heard of Heartfelt?

Today I have a guest post from Martine. When she is not busy raising her five boys, working and  blogging, Martine volunteers for an amazing charity. This charity doesn't even want you to donate, they just want you to know they exist, to share what they do and ensure all families have precious photos to keep.

Here Martine will tell you all about them.

Baby Ava

The loss of a child is certainly one of life’s greatest tragedies. 

When we lost our daughter she was 4 and a half months old. 

For 3 of those months she was a seemingly healthy, adored and treasured addition to our household of 3 boys. People often say that with subsequent children there are always less photos than with the first. As I was a photographer this never seemed to be true for me. During Ava’s short life I had taken many hundreds of photos. It is these photos that I often turn to in my times of immense grief, but also in those times when I just want to remember. They are also the images that will help her brothers keep her memory alive. 

Unfortunately though for many who lose a child suddenly or for other reasons and circumstance, they are in no position to have their precious moments captured in photos. Whilst there is nothing that can take away the pain of losing a child, I know that this pain would be compounded had I not had these beautiful images. 

Not long after our daughter died, I read about a charity that takes photos of premature, stillborn and seriously ill babies and children. Straight away I knew this was something I wanted to be involved with and set about applying to be a photographer. At the time it was known as ACOCP (Australian Charity of Child Photographers) but has since been renamed Heartfelt. Heartfelt is a not for profit organization whereby all photographers work for no fee to capture precious memories for families and present them with prints and CDs of their images. This can often mean photographers go out at very short notice to homes and hospitals and under very difficult circumstances to ensure that photos can be captured with the utmost sensitivity and respect. 

For myself there are still some sessions that I am not ready to face but thankfully there are some amazing photographers that make themselves available at all times of day and night. Whilst Heartfelt is now beginning to foster great relations with hospital staff all over Australia, it is still important to spread the word of the amazing work that is done so that no other family should be without beautiful photos of their precious children. For more information on this wonderful organization please www.heartfelt.org.au

So if you could,  please share this post with your networks, your stalkers, your friends and your foes. As knowledge of what they do helps Heartfelt get out to more families who unfortunately may need them.