Bereaved Parents' Club

Today we are so thankful for Sascha's little sister Stefanie who has kindly recorded this special Christmas message.Her older brother Sascha died aged 18 in 2004 from Glioblastoma which is an aggressive cancer in the brain.Stefanie shares how they honour and include Sascha at Christmas and have formed ways of doing this as a family every year.We love the candle lighting idea and having a candle burning into the new year as a symbol of Stefanie taking Sascha into the next year with her. Coping with a new year without your loved one is often very challenging and a particularly complex time in grief.Sibling grief is complicated as not only does it change the dynamics of your family. You may now be the only living child yet this was never meant to be. Often siblings have special close relationships they can be best friends, confidents and protectors and the loss of them is felt in so many ways.The focus after a child dies is often on the parents as this is against the natural order of life. For a sibling they are grieving the loss of their sibling and on top the loss of the son/daughter relationship they had before as their parents are struggling with their own grief. This can have further impact the family connection with living siblings as each of their relationships with their parents and siblings are uniquely individual to them.This is a truly beautiful message from Stefanie which clearly shows the growing love and bond she has with her big brother Sascha. Thank you Stefanie xThis podcast short is dedicated to Sascha ❤️ #glioblastomaawareness#siblingloss#siblinggrief#survivingchristmas#saytheirnames

We are so grateful to Emma Ruby's Mum for taking the time to record this special podcast short on how her family handle Christmas and include/honour their daughter Ruby who died in May 2020 at the age of eighteen from lymphoma a form of blood cancer.We hope it resonates and provides comfort and support to other bereaved parents as this time of year is particularly tricky and at times overwhelming. Ruby's family and friends have raised a truly incredible £292k during the last five years through Live Kindly Live Loudly which is Ruby's motto and her legacy. All the money raised goes directly to CCLG: The Children & Young People's Cancer Association  raising vital funds for research into T-cell lymphoma and leukaemia.You can find out more information by visiting @livekindlyliveloudly on instagram and clicking on their web link in the bio.Thank you Emma xxThis podcast short is dedicated to Ruby ❤️.#livekindlyliveloudly #bereavedparents#childloss#survivingchristmas #saytheirnames

Kasia shares her story of her son Jakub including his musical talent and his final day.  We hear about Jaks World, a suicide prevention charity, and how this has helped Kasia in her grief.  Kasia explains the need to change the narrative around suicide and providing education to all and the important work Jaks World is doing in honest open conversations around suicide and its prevention.  Kasia, as a qualified EFT practitioner, talks openly about her experience and how she uses this practice daily in trying to help regulate her nervous system.Please be aware this episode covers grief, loss and suicide.

Meet Debbie and Tracy, the two mums behind the Bereaved Parents’ Club. And meet Dan and George, their brilliant sons whose deaths led to the mums joining the club that nobody wants to be a member of. This is an opportunity to find out how Tracy and Debbie met, and how the podcast came about. You’ll also hear about their books. Debbie wrote Midowed, published last year, which describes the first year of grief and celebrates the mother-son bond and coins the word ‘midowed’ to describe a mother that has lost her child. Tracy’s book Cooked with Love celebrates food as an expression of love and a way of sharing wonderful memories. Gathering recipes from bereaved parents it’s a mouth-watering testament to meals loved and shared, and a glimpse into the lives of the children we miss so very much.Join us as we think about what we have achieved and what might be coming next for the Bereaved Parents’ Club. This episode is dedicated to George and Dan.

By taking an active and creative response to the loss of their son Josh, Jane Harris and husband Jimmy Edmonds have developed fantastic resources for all bereaved parents. Jane joins us on this episode to talk about -amongst other things - the wonderful film A Love That Never Dies, the book When Words are not Enough, and their hugely popular active grief retreats.  This episode is dedicated to Josh. Jane Harris is a psychotherapist and bereavement specialist with over 30 years of experience in the NHS and private practice. She is also a grief educator, supervisor and public speaker​, regularly appearing in podcasts and radio. Her partner Jimmy Edmonds is ​a photographer and documentary film editor with over 100 TV credits. He is also a Winston Churchill Fellow and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker with several critically-acclaimed documentaries to his name​, including Chosen for Channel 4 and Breaking the Silence for BBC1.  After the death of their son at the age of 22 in 2011​, they created The Good Grief Project www.thegoodgriefproject.co.uk a charity dedicated to a proactive approach to grief. Using ideas that flow from the concept of ‘continuing bonds’, as opposed to society’s expectation of detachment from the deceased, they developed their Active Grief programme, comprising a series of residential retreats and workshops. Here, bereaved parents and siblings are helped to discover new and imaginative ways of expressing their grief, through creative writing, photography, boxing and fitness training. Grief is energy, they say, and their own skills have enabled them to make a number of significant films, including the award-winning A Love That Never Dies, Gerry’s Legacy, Beyond Goodbye, Say Their Name, and Beyond the Mask.  Their films, workshops and retreats speak to a new appreciation of what it means to grieve in a society that often has difficulty talking openly about death, dying and bereavement.  Their latest book, When Words Are Not Enough: Creative Responses to Grief is available worldwide.  https://www.quickthornbooks.com/title-list/when-words-are-not-enough/  “The word I keep coming back to with this book is beautiful, not a word I would usually associate with grief. But this book is rich in detail and compassion, it is authoritative and kind. Jane and Jimmy have done an extraordinary thing, through their immense loss and pain they have chosen to redefine grief as love turned inside out and walk alongside the bereaved. They make grief less scary. I have not read a better book on grief.”  Annalisa Barbiere – THE GUARDIAN  Resources: Please visit The Good Grief Project to learn more about Jane and Jimmy’s work, including the film A Love That Never Dies and the book When Words Are Not Enough. This link takes you directly to their Active Grief Retreats and you can find out about Grief Fit too. The July Three Peaks Challenge that Jane mentioned is on the Events page. The Compassionate Friends can be contacted here. The Helpline is 0345 123 2304. The Grieving Brain by Mary-Frances O’ Connor.