A popular YouTube influencer and his wife, who were inspired by their own tragic experience, have started an Alabama-based charitable foundation dedicated to helping couples who are confronted with infant loss.

Will and Lexie Gamble of Dothan were expecting twin girls in 2021 when a rare and life-threatening pregnancy complication that attacks the mother’s liver and blood count forced an emergency C-section to be performed just 35 weeks into the 40 week gestation period.

One daughter, Isla, was rushed into the neonatal intensive care unit immediately upon birth and is a happy and healthy child today.

The other twin, Carter Aspen Gamble, was stillborn.

Because the emergency C-section required general anesthesia, neither Lexie nor Will were able to witness the birth of their children or hold their babies in the delivery room immediately after they were born.

Once the anesthesia wore off and Lexie was informed of the news, the couple was provided just a few minutes with Carter before hospital protocols required her to be taken away.

“That short window with Carter is something no amount of words can really express,” the couple said. “On the labor and delivery floor, surrounded by happiness and babies crying, we were handed our silent and still little girl. She was ours completely, even in stillness, wrapped up and held and already so loved.”

“In the time since, we’ve learned to carry two things at once – grief for the daughter we lost and love for the daughter who lived,” they continued. “If we could go back and change one thing, it would be to have more minutes with Carter.”

The desire to ensure other couples are provided with the bonding experience they were largely denied, the Gambles created the Carter’s Hope Foundation, which is raising money to equip hospitals throughout Alabama with technology that dramatically extends the time that parents and loved ones may spend with their infants who have passed away.

“The brief moments we were given with our daughter is part of why this foundation exists – more time with her, even a few more hours, would have meant everything.” the Gambles said. “A CuddleCot gives grieving families that time. No parent should have to measure their goodbye in minutes because a hospital didn’t have the equipment to give them more.”

A CuddleCot bassinet and other available medical devices utilize a specially-designed cooling system that slows cellular changes and microbial breakdown for up to several hours after an infant passes away so parents may bond with their child or even swaddle and hold them. 

The foundation also seeks to supply hospitals with CuddleBlankets that use the same technology to extend grieving parents’ time with older babies who are lost.

Out of the 46 Alabama hospitals that provide maternity and delivery services to patients, only nine are equipped with CuddleCots, CuddleBlankets, or similar technology, which means 37 hospitals continue to strictly limit parents’ interaction with their child following an infant loss.

Additional initiatives for the Carter’s Hope Foundation include promoting grief counseling resources for fathers, who too often focus on consoling spouses and other family members while ignoring their own emotions and sense of loss, and other innovative ways of providing support to parents who lose a child.

Alabama’s infant mortality rate currently ranks third highest in the nation, and the latest available figures show there were 7.1 deaths for every 1,000 live births in the state during 2024, which is considered significantly higher than the provisional U.S. rate of 5.5. 

Statistics indicate that the leading causes of infant deaths across the state were congenital anomalies, preterm births, low birth weight, and bacterial sepsis. 

The Gamble family is using its established, high-profile digital media presence to increase awareness of the foundation, raise funding for its efforts, and highlight the important issue that it addresses.

Will is the co-host and co-founder of the “Mixed Up With Brewzle” YouTube channel that has amassed 113 million total views and 313,000 loyal subscribers, which places it in the top 1% of the platform’s channels. 

His father, TJ Gamble, is the creator behind the original “Brewzle” YouTube channel, which is rapidly approaching an impressive 900,000 subscribers, has attracted more than 485 million total views, and prompted Forbes Magazine to declare him “The Most Important Man In American Whiskey.”

The two channels feature whiskey reviews, hunts for rare bourbon on retail store shelves around the United States, and other related content, which is presented in a lighthearted and comedic format that highlights their familial bond.  

Their combined popularity led to the creation of the Brewzle Fest Craft Whiskey Festival, which is the largest gathering of its kind in the nation and recently drew several thousand bourbon aficionados from across the country to Opelika for the third annual event that was held in August.

This year’s iteration of Brewzle Fest included two new fundraisers that benefitted Carter’s Hope, a silent auction of rare and highly-allocated bourbons, commonly known among collectors as “unicorn bottles,” and a VIP charity tasting event featuring exclusive, high-end bourbons donated and presented by the distillers who made them.

Lexie and Jill Gamble, Will’s mother and TJ’s wife who is often featured in videos on the “Brewzle” YouTube channel, were instrumental in creating and organizing the events and ensuring their success.

The money raised from the festival’s auction and tasting provided enough funding for the foundation to begin supplying CuddleCots to hospitals in Alabama, but Carter’s Hope has much work yet to accomplish.

“If our work, our efforts, and the donations we collect provide even one couple with a few more precious minutes or hours with the child they lost, our foundation’s mission will be fulfilled,” Will and Lexie said. “Losing a child is a club that no parent wants to join, but Carter’s Hope will let them know they are not alone, and a community of Alabamians they have never even met are standing alongside them and offering support.”

Individuals wishing to support the Carter’s Hope Foundation and help fulfill its mission of assisting parents across Alabama who suffer an infant loss may make a tax-deductible online donation HERE or by visiting the charity’s website at www.cartershope.org on the internet.

David Azbell is a 28-year veteran of Alabama politics and has served as press spokesman for Alabama Govs. George Wallace, Fob James, and Bob Riley. He is the creator of “The Art of Alabama Politics,” a popular Facebook group that shares unique and little-known stories from state political history.