A SPECIAL service for those who have lost a son or daughter takes place this weekend after a Canon Missioner was inspired by the parents of a nine-year-old girl killed in a Fenland drain.

Sunday’s service of prayer, music, readings and candles at Ely Cathedral comes after Alan Hargrave met Andy and Lynn Walker of Tipps End.

Their daughter Charlotte, their only child, died almost three years ago when the car she was travelling in left the Sixteen Foot Bank and entered the water.

Mr Hargrave, whose son to cancer, said: “Trying to make sense of it and finding the strength to carry on is so very difficult.

“The death of a child is one of the most devastating things that can happen to us. It is immensely painful. It puts huge strain on our relationships and our ability to cope. It leaves us changed, forever.

“As we approach Christmas, a particularly difficult time for those who have lost children, this service seeks to help us express some of that pain and grief and, in the darkness, to find a glimmer of hope.”

The service will be led by the Ely Cathedral Girls Choir and starts at 6pm.