A 10-year-old girl's idea for a "letterbox to heaven" has been widely adopted in all UK cemeteries

Matilda Handy with the "Letters to Heaven" mailer.

A little girl's idea to install a 'letterbox in heaven' so she could write to her grandparents has been implemented in cemeteries across the UK.

Ten-year-old Matilda Handy came up with the idea after both of her grandparents died five years apart.

Her mother, Leanne, approached Gedling Crematorium in Nottingham last year with the idea and they happily responded by installing an old letterbox painted in white and gold just in time for Christmas.

The emotional enthusiasm has proved so popular that it has now spread to 40 sites in England, Scotland and Wales.

"Matilda was the first person to put a message in our first memorial mailbox in Gedling last December," said her mother, who works at the company.

"We couldn't have imagined that a year later there would be a memorial mailbox at each of the Westerleigh Group sites, bringing comfort to people across the country."

Matilda's grandmother worked at the post office, so the first box of "Letters to Heaven" was even more touching.

Soon after installation, more than 100 letters were dropped into the first box, designed to comfort relatives pining for loved ones on anniversaries and holidays.

British funeral homes have since adopted the idea, and Leanne says other countries are doing the same.

Matilda told SWNS: "I'm so grateful that our mailboxes not only help me, my friends and family, but also people all over the UK and even in Australia."

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"It's just a really nice way to express my feelings, to send them a letter and tell them how much I love them."

Her mom confirmed that Matilda always said she always said she wished she could send her grandparents birthday and Christmas cards to read to them in heaven.

"Matilda was so used to mailboxes and letters that she always wanted to send her mother one.

"A lot of people miss sending cards at Christmas and find real comfort in sending something, whether it's a child drawing a picture or an elderly person sending something to their loved ones ... It helps you cope with the process." (Visit GNN's grieving news page to see more comforting ideas).

The Westerleigh Group, one of the UK's largest independent owners and operators of crematoria and cemeteries, said positive feedback on the first box had encouraged them to install memorial letterboxes at all their sites by the end of this year.

Letters to Heaven, at Gedling Crematorium.

The group estimates that about 3,000 letters, cards and messages have already been dropped into the memorial mailboxes.

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Debbie Smith, CEO of the Westerleigh Group, says Matilda's idea "helps comfort thousands of bereaved people across the country and beyond."

"We have received so much incredibly positive feedback from people who tell us they have received therapeutic benefits and comfort.

"At first people thought the post box in Gedling was only put up at Christmas, but all our boxes are available all year round and people can send cards whenever they want."

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The schoolgirl also wrote to King Charles to see if he would be willing to install one outside Buckingham Palace in memory of loved ones such as the late Queen, Prince Phillip and Princess Diana."