Sponsored by
Bereaved Leeds mum's songs of hope
A professional singer who endured a stillbirth has recorded an album of tribute songs to raise funds for a charity for bereaved parents.
Clare Brooke, 29, was eight months pregnant when she gave birth to stillborn son Owen in November last year.
Clare and her husband Matthew, who live in Bramley, Leeds, tried for three years to have a baby before she fell pregnant with Owen, who died from a placental abruption.
Midwives later recommended the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society (Sands) as a support network.
Clare, who is expecting another son on December 20, has now recorded a tribute album in aid of Sands – and her new baby, who will be named Jacob, kicked for the first time while she was in the recording studio, PurplePro in Bramley.
She said: "I was singing Heaven by DJ Sammy and it's such a difficult song to sing, I kept having to repeat the word "baby". And then he kicked for the first time. He must have heard it. It was amazing."
As reported in the YEP, Clare posted a video of herself singing on YouTube after coming up with the idea for the album, called Touched By An Angel, in a bid to win time in a recording studio.
Help was at hand in the form of old friend Lisa-Marie Trory, who runs two cheerleading squads, NRG Extreme and Leeds Ladybirds, who performed at a fundraising event at Pudsey Civic Hall.
Clare then went into the studio and recorded 12 tracks for the album, including Leona Lewis's hit Better in Time and Songbird by Eva Cassidy.
She said: "The album tells the story of the emotional rollercoaster you go through. But it does end on a high. "When I was watching videos of myself while I was pregnant with Owen, I saw myself singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow.
"I realised that I shared those songs with him and I wanted to express myself that way.
"I just wanted to give something back to Sands and I thought this was a good idea."
There are 300 copies of Touched By An Angel, costing 5 each. For more information or to buy a copy, visit her mum's webpage, www.justgiving. com/marymarriott or call 0113 229 5829. Copies are also available from Bramley Baths and Armley Leisure Centre.
Sands
Read our hour of live webchat with the Boot Room's Andrew Hutchinson to find out what fans thought about Leeds United's thrashing of Crystal Palace and their forthcoming fixtures against Bristol Rovers and Bradford City.
Sign up to the Yorkshire Evening Post's email alerts
Email to a friend
Print this page- Politics: Mark Hookham's Westminster blog - 5.33pm
- Castleford RSPB Fairburn Ings: High wire act Swallows’ summer parade
- Worker dies on North Yorkshire Moors Railway
- Video: Restaurant reopens on Leeds Harry Ramsden’s site after £500,000 refit
- Chocolat author will tempt guests at Leeds Big Bookend Festival
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
