Nicki Almond opens her precious memory box and lifts out two photos of her tiny babies, Leon and Maddison.

They bring a smile to the young mum’s face, but along with the smile is a tear too, as both were stillborn.

“It was so hard to have, not just one, but two babies stillborn,” says Nicki. “But they will always be part of our family. And the memories I have, the photos, the keepsakes, are so special to us.”

Now Nicki wants to make sure others have the same memories too. She and husband, Kenny, are raising money to help fund a new bereavement suite at Arrowe Park Hospital where both children were born.

And she says: “I just want to make sure that anyone else who has to go through what I did, what we did, has those same precious moments. We spent time with Leon and Maddison, holding them, being with them. It made all the difference. It helped us to cope.”

Nicki, 26, from Eastham, already has a son Leighton, three, with Kenny, but the pair hoped to extend their family and were thrilled when Nicki became pregnant last year.

They were hopeful that everything would go smoothly as it had with Leighton but a scan revealed Leon had died in the womb at 18 weeks in October.

“I had to deliver Leon and, even though he was tiny, he was so perfect,” says Nicki, a college officer at West Cheshire College in Ellesmere Port.

“Doctors discovered I have a blood disorder called Lupus, for which miscarriage is a big side effect. With Maddi, we thought everything was okay as she got to 28 weeks.” But in June this year, the couple were hit with the news that she, too, had died.

“She had a large cyst on the back of her head and was quite severely brain damaged. It is thought that my folic acid levels had not returned to what they should have been after Leon.

“It wasn’t as difficult second time around in some ways because I knew what to expect and, yet, it was harder still because I’d not long since gone through the same thing. Maddi was two and a half pounds, fully formed, and beautiful.”

Thanks to a ‘cuddle cot’, a specifically designed, cool mattress, Nicki and Kenny were able to spend 15 and 20 hours respectively with their children.

“With Leon we couldn’t dress him as he was too small, but we held him and took photographs of him; and brought my mum and dad and sister to see him. It was comforting to us that we could have those precious moments.

“Immediately after Leon was born we started raising money with a Sleeping Babies Appeal, and reached £3,000 with a charity football match. We also joined up with another charity which provides memory boxes for people who have lost children.

“They contain a CD and a memory card for your camera, a teddy and a little angel...they’re amazing. With the money raised we bought 20 for Arrowe Park.”

Since Maddi, the couple have raised another £500 with an ice bucket challenge, and there is another football match planned, a charity evening next February and another ice bucket challenge pledged by a local football team.

“We were going to buy a cuddle cot but the hospital has asked us to hold fire as they are hoping to set up a new bereavement room to help couples like us, and we would love to help get that off the ground.

“I would hate for it to happen to anyone else but, if it does, we want them to have what we had; those precious moments and memories that will last forever.

“It helped us to grieve better, to move on and move forward.”

Times are still upsetting for the couple: “I should have started maternity leave on Monday in readiness for Maddison to be born,” says Nicki. “And we are coming up to the first year for Leon, so it’s starting to become raw again.

“Of course, there are days when we could both have just sat in a room, rocking ourselves back and forth, and feeling sorry for ourselves. But we will get through this because of the support we have from family and friends and the time we had with our babies – time we want to make sure now other couples have.

“I have got those precious memories and those precious memories keep me going.”

And there will be thoughts of another baby one day.

“But until then I look at Leighton, our gorgeous, happy little boy and realise, whatever has happened, how lucky we are still.”

• To pledge support for Nikki and Arrowe park, visit their fundraising page or email Nicki at nicki_b_2004@hotmail.com