GREAT Sankey couple Jack and Eloise Leighton are one of many to have used the maternity bereavement room, known as the butterfly suite.

The pair lost their baby Alfie on September 8 after the cord wrapped around his neck when 29-year-old Eloise was nine days overdue but are now determined to thank the ward for all their support.

Jack, aged 30, said: “Alfie would normally move in the evening but we couldn’t feel anything so went to get checked thinking it would be just 20 minutes in the hospital.

“Eloise was sent for an emergency caesarean and delivered Alfie but they couldn’t revive him.

“It was traumatising and your worst nightmare.”

Eloise, who runs her own business Passion 4 Italian Fashion, stayed in hospital for six days but thanks to the money raised her husband could stay with her as well as having all her family around her.

Jack added: “We were so well looked after and the people here are fantastic.

“It was so important for me to stay and help her through it and having the family around made it more bearable.

“It was still devastating but it allowed us to piece our lives back together and I can’t imagine what it would have been like going home and leaving Eloise here in hospital.”

The couple, who married in June last year, now plan to raise money through a charity football match involving hospital doctors with the help of Eloise’s dad former Manchester City player Peter Barnes.