The pain of losing a child can be all too painful for parents to bear leave alone immortalize. For one Cherie Ayrton, a mom from New Zealand, her tragedy has been transformed into an award-winning photo. The mom lost one of her twin boys when she was five months pregnant, but to keep the other twin alive, she had to carry the pregnancy to term. After the traumatic and heavily emotional births, Cherie decided to keep her original newborn photo shoot.

Cherie says that her entire world changed when she went in for her five-month scan, only to learn that one of her twin boys didn't have a heartbeat

Sarah Simmons, her photographer came up with a brilliant way of honoring both boys. Cherie’s living son Tiger posed with his brother Johny’s ashes in a powerful shot that has claimed both accolades and worldwide criticism.

Cherie carried her stillborn son to term and then delivered both boys on May 2, 2018

The mom who is a tattoo artist, had two daughters already, Charlie-Rose,5 and Frankie-Jane, who was 2 at the time. At the moment, Cherie couldn’t understand why it was not possible to find a heartbeat on her son Johnny.

"If he was a single birth we could have had testing," she says. "Because it was twins, I would have risked losing Tiger as well if testing was done." 

Sarah, who owns Charlie Horse photography explains how she initially intended to hold a baby shoot with Tiger but came across a photo of Charlie rose holding her brother’s ashes and in tears. This moved her into reinventing the shoot in a completely different way.

"I realized then that even though Johnny never got to take a breath he was just as much a member of that family as Tiger was," she says. "So I messaged Cherie and asked her if she wanted to include Johnny in the session somehow and she said yes they would love to."

Sarah admitted that the idea of photographing Tiger and Johnny didn’t come easy. She thought so much until the idea of photographing them in the same bowl came to her, she wanted to represent that they both shared one womb. To show their connection, he twisted a fabric around them both to symbolize the umbilical cord and that they will always be connected.

"It was pretty emotional at the time but I was really determined to get the image for Cherie and her family," she adds. "I knew it would be one of the most important images I would take. I just thought how much I would want that if I was in that position."

It turns out that Sarah’s photography is what Cherie needed most. "The photo is extremely healing for me and I'm so happy we have one picture of our boys together," she says.

Last week Sarah's incredible shot won silver in the prestigious award ceremony -- an accomplishment that Sarah doesn't just accept professionally. "It means so much to me that Cherie is able to share her story with so many. I know it is resonating with so many [people] and I know Cherie wants other people going through a similar grief to know they are not alone," she says

Cherie says she's "very proud" of Sarah and she hopes that others will see the photo and "take some form of relief. I think as mothers (and fathers) we all do a lot have a lot of self-guilt when losing a child. We are the sole protector for our kids. If something was to happened to them we will first blame ourselves."

But bad things can happen to anyone, she argues. Things such as her son's death are "out of our hands and are not our fault."

Ultimately, Cherie says, "if I can help make people think that they are not alone -- that we can honor our little people after death and it is OK -- then I'll be a happy lady."