Matilda wins Pride of Gedling Award for Memorial Post Box idea
A young girl’s idea which as brought comfort to thousands of bereaved people all over the country has earned her a Pride of Gedling Award.
Matilda Handy, aged 10, won the Dylan Barker (Young Person of the Year Award) which celebrates people aged under 21 who make an outstanding contribution to their communities.
Her wish to feel a connection to her late grandparents has led to Westerleigh Group installing memorial post boxes at all its crematoria and cemeteries nationwide over the past year, which enable people to write messages, cards and letters to loved ones they have lost.
Westerleigh Group is one of the UK’s largest independent owners and operators of crematoria and cemeteries, with 40 sites in England, Scotland and Wales, all set within beautifully-landscaped gardens of remembrance which provide pleasant, peaceful places for people to visit and reflect.
The first of the memorial post boxes was unveiled at Gedling Crematorium on 8 December 2022, and Matilda was the first person to post a letter in it.
Her mother, Leanne, is memorial advisor at the crematorium, and asked if the post box could be installed after Matilda had said she wished she could send cards and letters to her grandparents.
Leanne’s father passed away in 2003 and mother passed away in 2017.
Within weeks of being unveiled, around 100 items had been posted into that first memorial post box, which prompted Westerleigh Group to install them at all its sites nationwide during the year and it’s estimated that around 3,000 items have been posted in them altogether.
Through the year, Matilda has become something of a media star, with appearances on the BBC One Show, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, BBC Breakfast and Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4.
She was invited to a special reception at 10 Downing Street by Rishi Sunak, where she was recognised as a ‘Point of Light’; the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award is a daily programme recognising outstanding volunteers, charity leaders and community heroes, for the service they give to others.
She also recently went to the Palace of Westminster where she was presented with a British Citizen Youth Award Medal of Honour.
Now she has a Pride of Gedling Award to add to her collection of accolades.
She said: “I cannot believe it. I am so lucky to achieve these awards and I am really pleased that these post boxes are not only helping me, my friends, and family but also many people around the world.”
Since news spread of the memorial post boxes, Leanne has, indeed, been contacted by people from many different countries who have expressed interest in installing similar post boxes to bring comfort to the bereaved in their local communities.
