GENEROUS rugby players have boosted a charity which helps families cope with the loss of a baby.

Dunbar RFC formed a charity partnership with SiMBA, with its logo on the club’s strips.

Greg Patrizio, the club’s captain, and Justin Pearce, club president, were on hand to present a cheque to Sara Fitzsimmons, from the charity, which was previously based in the town.

A total of £700 was handed over to the charity’s chief executive officer, with SiMBA now based in Midlothian.

Sara said: “It is an amazing partnership.

“Just even bringing awareness about SiMBA to all the children who play rugby, the families who attend games and all the visitors who attend the games [is great].

“It has been a fantastic partnership and we are totally honoured that the rugby club have chosen us as their partners.”

Sara formed the charity more than a decade ago and has watched it go from strength to strength, with services – ranging from memory boxes containing everything from a small knitted blanket to a birth acknowledgement certificate, to trees of tranquillity, where each copper leaf represents a baby who has died – now on offer across the country.

She was also awarded an MBE for her services to bereaved families in March last year and said: “In October 2005, I approached friends with an idea.

“I saw first-hand the devastation that parents felt when they lost their baby; watching them leave the hospital with nothing more than a brown paper envelope and a Polaroid picture was heartbreaking.

“I wanted to change and challenge the system; I wanted to help these families and give them much more.”