Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Please read our story.

'An astonishing 1 in 29 children in the UK under 16 years old will suffer the death of a parent. Bereavement is devastating at any age, but for a child it is beyond tragic and truly unimaginable.' 

Sadly in the summer of 2006 my beautiful, carefree children Andrew and Ellie-Rose became that 1 in 29. Telling the children they wouldn't see their daddy again was heart wrenching. Aged just 4 and 6 they were confused and bewildered. Our family and friends were amazing and couldn't do enough for us. However, Andrew, Ellie-Rose and I were having to live a different life and quite simply we were bereft. Not one part of our lives was left untouched by the grief we were experiencing. I felt helpless in not being able to take their pain away. They needed help to learn to live without their daddy and the pain that came with it and I needed support in doing so. That help came in the form of Shelley Gilbert and her fantastic team at Grief Encounter. 'Grief Encounter are one of the UK’s leading child bereavement charities providing pioneering services and support to bereaved children, young people and their families.'  Through workshops with other bereaved children,  counselling, fun days out, the team visiting the school to train teachers in supporting Andrew and Ellie-Rose, we were slowly able to start living our lives again. It was not the life we envisaged but a life in which our memories are no longer engulfed in pain, a life where we celebrate the times we had with Pete.

Grief Encounter's vision is that every bereaved child and their family in the UK receives the best quality information, advice and counselling to help alleviate the pain caused by the death of a parent or sibling. PLEASE PLEASE HELP US raise funds to support this vision. On behalf of myself, Andrew and Ellie-Rose thank you from the bottom of our hearts <3