A COUPLE who started a £10,000 appeal to build a children’s memorial in a cemetery have unveiled a statue in memory of their daughter.

Karen and Neil Hancox were left devastated after their baby Kayleigh was stillborn in November 2007.

Last summer, they began the Angel Gifts Appeal to raise money for a children’s memorial in the Snowdrop Garden at the Hardwick Hill Crematorium, in Banbury, where Kayleigh’s ashes are buried, and monitoring equipment for The Horton Hospital’s maternity ward.

Within six months, the couple, of Romney Way, Banbury, had raised £13,000 from events such as a car boot sale, raffle and flamenco dance show.

Bloxham CofE Primary School teacher Mrs Hancox, 31, who has since become fundraising co-ordinator for Oxfordshire Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society, said: “We wanted to make Kayleigh proud that we did something to celebrate her life, to keep her memory alive.

“We wanted her legacy to live on and for her little life to make a difference in the world, by helping others.

“We wanted to give something back to the maternity unit where Kayleigh was born, as a thanks for all they did for us.”