The Children’s Bereavement Centre

The Children’s Bereavement Centre is a unique and special charity that offers children and their families, affected by terminal illness, death or separation of a child’s parents, the support and guidance they need during a very difficult time in their lives. Last year they supported over 780 children and their families throughout Nottinghamshire and parts of Lincolnshire. The Centre was our chosen charity for Retro Festival Newark 2017. We have continued to support the Centre with further donations of £5000 in 2018 and £8000 in 2019.

This is Nick and Emily’s story

Emily’s mum Amanda, and I separated when Emily was two. Our relationship broke down following the death of my father, but Emily always came first with us and she knew that she had us both in her life. Suddenly Amanda died of an Asthma attack when Emily was just six years old. After the initial shock, Emily seemed – on the surface at least – to accept the massive changes in her life. But just under a year after her mum’s death, everything changed. She had violent outbursts, uncontrollable screaming fits and an anger I couldn’t believe could come out of my wonderful daughter. She needed help. A friend told me about the one to one support the Children’s Bereavement Centre offers, and within a couple of visits, the change in Emily was amazing. She had found the place where she could talk about her mum and about all the anger and hurt she was feeling. She said that the people there really understood her and how she was feeling. Over the next few months, we both received help from the Centre and attended not only the one to one support sessions but also other events laid on by them, this helped us a great deal. The staff and volunteers at the Centre are always at the end of the phone when Emily or I need to talk and I’m honestly not sure how we could have got through these last couple of years without them.

This is just one of the stories of the positive effect the charities one to one support sessions have had on a family. Each child that attends gets at least eight one hour sessions of support, the direct cost for eight sessions of support for a child is £200.

The one to one support sessions provide early intervention to support children and young people who are suffering the trauma of losing a relative or close friend. This also includes children and young people whose parents are going through a difficult separation and also the loss of a close relative from a terminal illness diagnosis and all the changes to their lives that this diagnosis will bring. The sessions enable them to talk about their anxieties and feelings. They are encouraged to work through using creative therapeutic work to enable them to work through their grief in a safe non-threatening environment.

In normalising their feelings at an early stage the children will adapt more quickly to their loss and the risk adverse behaviour and mental health problems will be reduced, allowing them to grow up healthier citizens; able to make a positive contribution in their communities.

Please check out the Children’s Bereavement Centre’s website at www.childrensbereavementcentre.co.uk for more information on what they do.