A couple who set up a charity to help bereaved parents will be meeting royalty this week when they attend the Queen’s garden party at Buckingham Palace.

Jo and David Ward will be at the palace on Tuesday. The Rochester couple set up the charity after their daughter Abigail was stillborn in April 2009.

It is now the Medway Messenger’s charity of the year and the couple have raised thousands of pounds to help other bereaved parents.

When their daughter died the couple found staff were woefully under-prepared to handle their grief. The experience drove them to set up the charity to help other parents going through similar heartbreak and make hospital staff better equipped to deal with a similar situation.

The couple have been invited along to the party in recognition of their charity work.

Another Medway campaigner who will be rubbing shoulders with the royals is Maurice Bernard, of Mountbatten Avenue, Chatham, who has been awarded the British Empire Medal for his work to improve dementia services in Medway.