Dr Chantal Fowler Lockey of The Foundation for Infant Loss Training has been appointed Medalist of the Order of The British Empire by HRH King Charles III in the New Years Honours List 2025 for services to Bereavement Care and Reducing Infant Mortality. Chantal has also been appointed as: Honorary Doctor of Education: The University of East London Honorary Doctor of Science: The University of Bedfordshire Honorary Fellow: The University of Wales Trinity Sr David.
Dr Fowler Lockey will continue to deliver her award winning and accredited training to organisations worldwide.
In 2004 Chantal’s first born daughter Marnie died of Sudden Infant Death aged 6 weeks. She felt completely unsupported by the lack of care given to her. This served as a catalyst for Chantal to ensure other bereaved families were better cared for.
In 2007 Chantal founded The Foundation for Infant Loss Training. She realised that one of the main reasons that some families were not getting good bereavement care was that there was no training in place for professionals. This is something that she has personally changed.
In the last 17 years Chantal has trained an estimated 80,000 professionals (healthcare professionals, counsellors and the public services). During each and every training session she shares and relives her own story of losing her daughter which must be incredibly difficult but she knows that by sharing the failings given to her, that professionals can learn from this and offer better care to bereaved families moving forward. Chantal works with many national Baby loss and Infertility related charities who specifically seek her trained counselling professionals into paid positions. Chantal is currently working with The Metropolitan Police and The Ministry of Defence and is working within women's prisons.
She also developed an e-learning programme which has been studied across the world. This training fills a huge gap worldwide. In 2017 Chantal led her own Pregnancy and Infant Loss Conference which was attended by over 400 professionals in London which was incredibly well received. This was attended by doctors, midwives, funeral directors, coroners and so forth and gave a fantastic opportunity for different professionals to learn from each other.
Chantal also trains professionals in supporting families with subsequent pregnancies after loss (Rainbow Baby’s) as this is something that is rarely spoken about. People assume that when people are expecting a baby after loss that they are “okay” and chantal teaches that this is often not the truth and that many experience a rollercoaster of emotions for many months, if not years. Chantal developed The Foundations "Rainbow Baby Specialist" training in 2024. This is believed to be the only training of its kind and it is aimed at professionals who will support bereaved parents with subsequent pregnancies such as midwives and counsellors.
Chantal is also highly trained in how Cultural and religious issues can affect attitudes towards baby loss and frequently trains front line medics on the importance of getting this right. Chantal is highly knowledgeable in this area with Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist faiths as well as having no religion. Chantal is also a specialist in training in the “Invisible Loss” arising from Premature Menopause and Infertility as well as having a firm interest in Reducing Infant Mortality. Chantal has a interest in recognising that certain groups are at an increased risk of baby loss and the additional support required ( eg Neurodiversity, LGBTQIA+, BAME, Young Parents, Disability, Vulnerable women including domestic violence, FGM and homelessness).Chantal is frequently contacted by television producers for BBC, ITV and Channel 4 for advice on baby loss story lines and offers consultancy to corporate organisations.
Chantal offers advice to HR on how they can best support their employees when suffering with a pregnancy and infant loss as well as assisting them to implement policies and procedures so that they can best support employees who have lost a baby including how to support those who have suffered a miscarriage at work. Because of Chantal’s work hundreds of UK companies have signed up to train their staff in pregnancy and infant loss and to also receive the support services of The Foundation.
This is a huge achievement as previously very few corporate organisations had such a policy in place. This obviously affected employees returning to work post loss or perhaps it meant that they were expected back into the office when they were not physically or mentally ready. Chantal ran an online conference in May 2025 with six religious leaders (of the six major religions) on Cultural & Religious Issues Following a Bereavement
Chantal is currently working extensively with HSE Ireland to ensure staff are trained at maximum levels. Because of this training, more bereaved families in Ireland will also be better cared for.
Cantal has also won prizes at the BJM Awards in 2014 and 2017.