Mums meet minister after funeral director 'horror'

Zoe Ward (left) attended the meeting with the minister alongside Cody and Liam Townend (right)

Families who are calling for a change in the law after their babies' dead bodies were kept at a funeral director's home have said a meeting with a government minister about the issue was "really positive".

Zoe Ward said she had been left "screaming" after finding her dead son had been put in a baby bouncer "watching cartoons" in the living room of Amie Upton, the founder of Florrie's Army.

Ms Upton previously told the BBC she had only ever received two complaints in her eight years of running her funeral and baby loss support service in Leeds.

After meeting Victims Minister Alex Davies Jones on Wednesday, Ms Ward said the minister had reassured her that "a regulation will be in place".

Ms Ward, alongside Cody and Liam Townend - another affected couple - and Mark Sewards, MP for Leeds South West and Morley, met the minister to call for tighter regulation of the funeral industry.

Ms Ward and Mr and Mrs Townend told her of their experiences after discovering how their babies' bodies were being stored.

Ms Ward had asked Florrie's Army to arrange the funeral for her baby, Bleu, shortly after he died of brain damage at three weeks old in 2021.

She said she thought Bleu would be in a "professional setting", but was left "terrified" when she saw her son in Ms Upton's living room.

"I didn't want him in that house," Ms Ward said, adding the "weird" experience had left her "upset and angry".

Zoe Ward, pictured with her son Bleu, before he died of brain damage at three weeks old

She said her experience had led to her wanting to see tighter rules for the funeral industry, which is unregulated in England and Wales.

There are currently no legal requirements about how and where bodies should be stored, and no qualifications are needed to set up as a funeral director.

A statutory code of conduct for funeral directors was introduced in Scotland in March.

The government has previously said it would give an update on plans to regulate the funeral sector "before the end of the year", following an inquiry in July which recommended it should introduce statutory regulations in England.

Ms Ward said she had been reassured by the meeting with Davies Jones.

"It was a really good outcome," she said.

"I'm proud of myself. I feel like I've got some kind of justice for Bleu and that it's not going to happen to another family like it did to us."

A BBC Investigation in August reported that Ms Upton had been banned from entering any of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust's mortuaries and maternity wards for keeping the bodies of babies at her home.

Meanwhile, West Yorkshire Police said it had investigated Florrie's Army, but after "extensive inquiries" had not identified any potential crimes.

When asked in August by the BBC about claims her home was an unsuitable place to keep babies' bodies, and about the experiences of Ms Ward, Ms Upton did not respond to the claims, but said she had only had two complaints since she set up Florrie's Army.

Many reviews of Ms Upton's services on Facebook are positive, with some families describing the service as "amazing" and "inspirational".

Ms Upton was approached about Wednesday's meeting with the Victims Minister, but she declined to comment.

Zoe Ward told the Victims Minister she wants to see the funeral industry regulated

Mr and Mrs Townend also said the meeting with the minister had gone well.

Their daughter was stillborn in January, with the pair appointing Ms Upton to oversee her funeral.

The couple said they found Macie-Mae's body on the sofa at the funeral director's home, six miles away from the funeral parlour where they thought her body was being looked after.

Mrs Townend's mother, Dawn Shackleton, said: "It was just crazy. If I told somebody of this story...they'd think it was a horror film."

Mrs Townend said: "A family should should be able to trust funeral directors", adding that she, too, wanted to see tighter regulations.

Speaking after the meeting in London, Mr Townend said: "It feels great. They're actually wanting to do something.

"It's a bit of peace of mind knowing it's another step forward to it not happening to anyone else."

Meanwhile, Sewards said it was "so important" the families got to tell their stories to the minister.

"She listened diligently and responded by saying she was going to change something about the law in this area," the MP added.

"The key now is to work to make the appropriate changes, and that's exactly what I'll be doing in parliament."

A government spokesperson said grieving families "rightly expected their children to be treated with dignity and respect".

The government was "considering the full range of options to improve standards" in the funeral industry, they added.