Waterloo Road and Coronation Street star Kym Marsh has opened up about the loss of her son Archie after news that the government is

expanding its baby loss certificate scheme, which was initially launched in February.

Previously, parents who had experienced a loss after September 2018 were eligible for a baby loss certificate, but now the government is

scrapping the time limit, and any parent who has experienced a loss before 24 weeks, or 28 weeks if the loss occurred before October 1992, will be eligible.

For actress Kym Marsh, whose son Archie was born at 21 weeks in 2009, the news comes as ‘a huge win’.

‘I am very emotional this morning, so I apologise if I start to get upset. These certificates mean so much,’ she emotionally revealed on BBC Breakfast.

‘As we’ve heard already, it makes your baby not just a statistic. My Archie was here. I gave birth to him, I held him, we had a funeral, and he mattered. He mattered to all of us, and for us to not get anything that recognised that he was here was absolutely heartbreaking, because he was a little person, and he was our little person.

‘We’re so delighted. This is a huge win for all of us, a huge win for Saying Goodbye and Mariposa International. It’s just fantastic.’

She went on to explain how Archie, whose dad is Hollyoaks star Jamie Lomas, remains a huge part of the family’s life.

‘We celebrate his birthday. We do that every single year. Polly, who is now 13 – obviously, she was born after the loss of Archie – she knows all about Archie.

‘We celebrate him, we talk about him. We include him in Christmas, we think about him, because he was our child and he matters just as much as the ones that are lucky enough to be here do.

‘It’s very important that we remember our children and this certificate is going to help everybody to do that.’

She also explained how being able to sign documents like these is a big part of the grieving process – something that she experienced earlier this year following the death of her dad, David, after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

‘It is massively part of the grieving process. It’s also about acceptance. You kind of have to accept what’s happened to you. I think those physical things are very important parts of that process.

‘I just lost my dad in January and we had to do all of that with dad, and it is very much a part of it. It does make it more real, but I think that is very important to acknowledge because it helps you to accept what has happened to you as a parent.

‘It never goes away. A loss is a loss and they were our children. It’s great that people are opening up these conversations now, and I think by us talking about baby loss and opening that conversation, lifting the lid and raising more awareness, it is encouraging more people to speak about it, and that is such a vital part of the grieving process and being able to put your life back together.’