A YOUNG mum can give her stillborn baby boy a permanent memorial after donations flooded in to support a fundraising walk.

Sophie Miles, 20, and 30 friends and family staged a seven-mile walk, followed by a leg wax, on Saturday in a bid to raise enough money for a plot and headstone at Kingsdown Crematorium to lay her baby Jaiden to rest.

Sophie, of Westlea, became pregnant with her first baby late in 2009 but in May 2010 when she was nearly 28 weeks pregnant, she was told the devastating news that he had stopped breathing.

Doctors said Sophie would have to give birth to her baby, who she had already named, immediately, on what she described as the worst day of her life.

Although Sophie has created her own memorial garden to Jaiden at her mum Jackie Chart’s home, in Park North, she wanted a plot in the memorial garden to provide a more permanent tribute to her son.

The event managed to raise more than £1,000 meaning she can now afford the £500 plot and start searching for the perfect headstone, as well as donating 20 per cent of the funds to Swindon Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity.

“It went really well and we raised much more than I was expecting so I’m really pleased,” said Sophie.

“I’ve still not collected everybody’s sponsorship yet either so it may go up but it means I can bury him, which costs £500.

“I’m also donating some to Sands and then the rest can go to headstone.

“I’m not sure what I want yet and I want it to be the right one so I don’t want to limit it to a certain amount of money.

“I don’t know what I want on it yet, but I think there will be a poem.”

Sophie said she had to change the route of the walk because the original route was waterlogged and the group, most wearing Sands T-shirts with Jaiden written on the back, walked further than the planned five miles.

The shop assistant, who has a 17-month-old daughter called Aaliyah Gray, said: “We walked through Old Town, Lawn and down Queens Drive before walking round Coate Water, which was just under seven miles in the end.”

To purchase a Sands t-shirt or find out more contact Sophie on sophie.miles91@ googlemail.com.

For information on Sands visit swindonsands.org/index.php.