A post box has been put up at a crematorium to allow mourners young and old to send 'letters to heaven' for lost loved-ones.
The white-coloured Royal Mail box has been installed at Howe Bridge Crematorium in Atherton, Wigan - the project was the brainchild of a nine-year-old girl missing her grandparents.
Matilda Handy came up with the idea after their deaths - and the concept is now also being rolled out to other crematoriums and cemeteries.
Her idea saw her appear on the BBC One Show and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. She even received an invite to 10 Downing Street for a reception where she was presented with a special Point of Light award by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Lindsey Edwardson, site manager at Howe Bridge Crematorium, said they were happy to launch the post box after being told of the success of the first one at Gedling Crematorium in Nottingham, where schoolgirl Matilda lives with her family.
Lindsey said: "Having seen the response to the first memorial post box at Gedling Crematorium, I am pleased to have installed something similar here at Howe Bridge, enabling our bereaved communities to have access to this wonderful asset too.
"Feedback has shown that the process of writing a letter, or perhaps a birthday card, to a lost loved one has already brought therapeutic comfort to many people. Now, the communities in and around our crematorium can do the same thing.
"No address or stamps are required on any of the letters or cards."
At Gedling Crematorium, more than 100 letters and birthday cards were posted into the post box within the first few weeks.
Matilda is the daughter of Gedling Crematorium's Memorial Advisor, Leanne Handy. Her father and mother - Matilda's grandparents - passed away in 2003 and 2017 respectively.
Leanne said: "It all came about because Matilda was always saying she wished we could send mamma and grandad birthday and Christmas cards for them to read. She was four when my mum died, and never met my dad.
"Now the post box is in place, I am so pleased that local people are using it, and taking some comfort from it, as another way of feeling connected to their loved ones.
"We were thrilled by the positive response to the box and I feel very proud. We’ve had amazing comments from members of the community who have used it, about the comfort they have gained from writing letters and cards.
"Matilda and I were even more delighted when we learned that Westerleigh Group was going to install similar boxes across all its crematoria so that people all over the country will be able to use them. The memorial post boxes are available for anyone to use, regardless of whether you have held a service for your loved one at any of our crematoria or not.
"They are available to absolutely anyone who wants to write a message to someone who’s no longer here."
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