THE mother of a baby girl who died suddenly says she has been overwhelmed by the kindness of fundraisers who have helped pay for a headstone.

Eleven-month-old Telan Carlton died suddenly after being taken ill at her family’s one-bedroom flat in Chapelfields, York, last October.

Friends and family of her mother, Kia Stone, have now taken part in a “jailbreak challenge” to pay for a headstone for Telan’s grave.

Thirty people joined teams to take part in a sponsored orienteering challenge in the Yorkshire Dales. They raised more than £3,000, a third of which will go to pay for a personalised headstone for Telan’s grave at Fulford Cemetery – which currently only has a name plaque – and two-thirds of which will go to the cot death charity, FSID, which has offered support to Kia and her family.

Kia said: “The challenge was difficult. It was long and tiring, but well worth it with a lot of determination from everybody. I’m so proud of everyone and want to say thank you to everybody because they were amazing. It was for that special little girl, it was a great day.

“Now Telan’s grave is not just going to be a place with flowers and toys, it will be a place for my daughter where people can go and feel close to her. I can have that connection and feel close to her.”

She said together with her family, she hoped a personalised headstone inscribed with a poem she has written and decorated with the Beatrix Potter characters Telan loved would be a fitting memorial for her daughter.

While it has not been determined what caused Telan’s death, Kia believes their damp, crowded flat – which was home to four and had significant amounts of mould growing in the bedroom – could have been a factor. An inquest has been opened and adjourned into the little girl’s death.

Kia thanked Laura Cheshire, Donna D’Arcy, Adrian Rennie, Scott Healy and Stuart Healy for their help, as well as Stephenson’s for helping provide transport.