Cutting It star Sarah Parish lost her daughter back in 2009, and the 48-year-old has said that she doesn’t her death to “have happened all for nothing”.
Talking to OK! magazine about that time in her life, the actress explained how Ella-Jayne was born five weeks prematurely and spent four months in intensive care.
Sadly, the infant who has been diagnosed with a hole in her heart before her birth, passed away when she was just eight-months-old.
Following on from her death, Sarah, who is also mum to Nell, and her husband, James, set up the Murray Parish Trust, a charity that raises money for the Paediatric Intensive care Unit in Southampton.
“When you go through something as a traumatic as what we went through, you want to give something back,” she said to the publication.
“You don’t want it to have happened all for nothing. The Murray Parish Trust is helping to keep her memory alive for us.”
Highlighting how the charity helps them through the tough times, 41-year-old James said that it played a huge role in the healing process.
"There’s a lot of tragedy and sadness but if we can harness that and put it into doing something good, this really helps with the grieving process."
The pain of losing Ella-Jayne is still there, and Sarah says: "Every year I write her a birthday card and keep it for us. There are sad days but also happy days."
"We have a lot to be thankful for."
