Baby loss inspired Halewood woman to start business helping others remember loved ones

A Liverpool woman who lost her own son is starting a business, creating memorial jewellery to help people remember their loved ones.

Becca Lennox, from Halewood, uses ashes, hair and sentimental fibres to make pendants, bracelets, and rings to produce a special and lasting keepsake for those who’ve lost someone close.

Hope and Grace Jewellery – named after her two daughters Charlotte Hope, seven, and Emily Grace, 13 – was inspired after the emergency call handler’s son Charlie was heartbreakingly stillborn at 16 weeks almost 10 years ago.

Before that her beloved grandad passed away.

Already a jewellery maker using polymer clay, Becca decided she wanted to focus on memorial pieces after finally getting a pendant made using her grandad’s ashes just two years ago: “When I got that necklace, I can’t explain the feeling I got from it,” she says.

“I felt so much closer to him, and it was like I was with him again.

“I wanted to give other people that feeling.”

She adds: “Knowing that someone can empathise with you and resonates with your grief on a very personal level creates, I hope, a special trust.

“I know what it’s like to lose someone and so I feel very honoured and privileged when I’m chosen to create memorial jewellery for people. I understand what they’re going through because I’ve been through loss myself, and it means I put so much care and passion into what I do because I know how much it matters.”

What makes it even more incredible, though, is that Becca creates her beautiful pieces in spite of the fact that she is severely sight impaired.

The 34-year-old began losing her sight about six years ago and, after going to the optician’s when her vision started to go blurred, was immediately sent to A&E.

“They thought I might have a brain tumour because they could see something at the back of my eye,” she says. 

Thankfully Becca, who was forced to given up nurse training in 2020 because of her failing eyesight, didn’t have a tumour.  But she was diagnosed with idiopathic intercranial hypertension, a condition which had caused pressure to build up in her brain and press on – and damage – her optic nerve.

She now has no peripheral vision and little long sight, and describes what she can see as limited, ‘like looking through binoculars’.

But she refuses to give in, using powerful magnifiers to painstakingly create the jewellery which, she says, ‘has to be perfect’.

“I can’t be ‘woe is me’,” she explains.  “For a start, I have my two daughters and my husband, Allan, who is the most amazing man I have ever known, pushing me to be my best, and supporting me -which makes the biggest difference in the world.

“And I can’t let it stop me doing things.

“Of course I would rather I hadn’t lost much of my sight, but things are put in our way for a reason, and you get through them.

“You have to move forward.”

Becca creates the jewellery, along with framed photos and charms, in silver and gold, and offers a range of settings and styles using cubic zirconia and resin which is cured to provide a durable finish. It means it will last for years and can even be handed down.

She has even used pet fur to provide precious mementoes for animal lovers.

“When I’m working I make a video so people can see what I’m doing and I light a candle in honour of their loved one,” she says. “It’s a personal touch that I can offer and special care, so people realise that I understand.  This isn’t just a piece of jewellery or someone’s hair or ashes – it’s their everything.

“I’ll work with a person to create something that’s exactly what they want, and the way they want it to look, and everyone gets a certificate of authenticity when it’s returned to them.

“Although I still work as an emergency call handler, I would love to do this full-time one day,” adds Becca, who also now volunteers with the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind).

“It gives me such a huge sense of satisfaction to know I’ve given comfort to someone in their grief.

“Each piece made with intention, serving as a lasting tribute to those gone, and a reminder that they are always respected, always remembered and always carried close.”

Find out more about Becca and her memorial keepsakes here.

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