SPRING - a local charity Supporting Parents and Relatives In Neonatal Grief - is giving help and hope to a family rocked by an almost unimaginable tragedy.

The joy of young mum-to-be Leanne Cotton, her partner David and her parents Paul and Julie was shattered by the shock news barely six weeks before Leanne was due to give birth that her twin boys had died inside her.

Leanne was induced to give birth to the babies naturally the following day - a procedure deemed by doctors to be better for her chances of future pregnancy than invasive caesarean section surgery.

As soon as their plight was realised Leanne and her family were admitted to the SPRING suite operated by the charity and its volunteers on the antenatal wing at Poole hospital to provide caring, compassionate comfort to bereaved parents.

"By then we had had time for it to sink in and I realised that instead of a Christening we were going to have to plan a funeral," said Leanne's dad Paul Cotton.

"I thought watching both my children being born would the most emotional experience of my life, but I found out then that it was not."

The identical twins, named Jamie David and Lewis Paul, were born hand in hand and were carried, still holding hands, in a single white coffin to their funeral at a packed Christchurch Priory 10 days later.

With the support of SPRING counsellors and the sympathetic understanding of staff at Christchurch funeral directors Miller and Butler, the family were able to spend time with the tiny twins before saying a final farewell.

"In those few days I feel I knew them even though their lives were so short. At the funeral I felt proud that so many people turned out for our grandchildren," said Mr Cotton.

He praised hospital staff at Poole and funeral director Stuart Major for their help, but paid special tribute to SPRING.

"If they weren't there, I don't know how we would have coped," he said.

"Our view is that Jamie and Lewis never had chance to do anything in this life but we didn't want their lives to pass unnoticed. If from their misfortune some good can come, their lives, however short, will have been worth something."

In lieu of flowers the family asked for donations in aid of SPRING and they have pledged their support to help the charity in memory of Jamie and Lewis.

From the outset SPRING volunteers, many of them bereaved parents and grandparents themselves, have given and continue to give support to Leanne and her family - and the hundreds of others who have suffered similar heartbreak since the charity was founded 10 years ago.

While Leanne's story is extreme, it is not unusual and SPRING deals with more than 60 neonatal bereavements every year.

Funded by donations and their own efforts, SPRING provides a professional "bereavement midwife" counsellor, holds monthly support group meetings and through a team of volunteers maintains the Snowdrop Garden for baby graves in Poole cemetery to allow parents to place toys, teddies and other tributes which regular cemetery rules prohibit.

SPRING chairman Kate Ward said: "Bereavement support is not provided on the NHS but we feel it is so important.

"Leanne and David have their family around them but not everyone does.

"SPRING is like a big family."

She explained the Snowdrop logo was chosen as a symbol for SPRING because "it comes early, is very fragile and doesn't last very long".

"We like to think that what we can offer to people like David and Leanne and their family is a new beginning," said Kate.