Blank Space Campaign: Stories
Hear from campaign supporters about what the Blank Space Campaign means to them...
Orlanda
"My late partner Julian and I were on holiday when he unexpectedly and suddenly died of a heart attack; I was five months pregnant when it happened...
It is not fair or right but, as the law currently stands in the UK, when you want to register the birth of your baby, the registrar is not allowed to add your late partner’s name to your child’s birth certificate, if you were not married when they died. Instead, there is a large blank space where the name should be."
Sophie
Nothing could prepare the mum of three and former carer for the heartbreak of trying to register Kinley’s birth. When she arrived at the registrar’s in Leicester, she was told she wasn’t able to give her baby Lawrence’s surname. After requesting a second opinion from the manager, this was then accepted. She was then informed that, due to not being married to Lawrence at the time of his death, his details could not be put on their daughter’s birth certificate.
Kelly
It was a few days after her fiancé Jordan’s funeral that former WAY member Kelly found out she was pregnant.
Jordan had gone for a night out in Retford in Nottinghamshire with friends when he was attacked and died of his injuries in January 2020. Overnight, Kelly went from planning their future to planning her fiancé’s funeral.
“It’s just so unfair. She’s half of me and she’s half of him. It’s only right for it to be legally documented. She has lost enough.”
Karen
Two weeks after Scottish WAY member Karen’s fiancé Jim died, she found out she was pregnant with their second child. She was shocked to learn that, because she and Jim weren’t married, she wasn’t able to include his name on their son’s birth certificate when she went to register the birth.
“If we had been married, there would have been no issue. The law assumes my husband to be the father of my child. But we didn’t get time to take that final step of getting married, so we are treated differently. My son was given a certificate with a line through the space where his father’s name should be.”