All-Party Parliamentary Group for Childhood Bereavement

Expert / 19 November, 2024 / Ellie Thompson

It’s #ChildrensGriefAwarenessWeek. Another awareness week that’s now personally on my radar.

I lost my four-year-old boy Billy to a DIPG brain tumour on Easter Sunday. As a family, we have been through and are still going through hell. As a parent, it’s hard to know how my seven-year-old daughter Maddie is doing. On the surface, she seems her normal, happy-go-lucky self. She has settled in well at her new school and her teachers are pleased with her progress. But she’s always been a closed book. She tends to mask her true feelings with humour and clowning around, and often she’ll ask us to change the subject if we bring up Billy’s illness.

One-on-one counseling isn’t right for Maddie right now. You can’t expect a child of her age to sit down with an adult and talk about stuff. We tried it. She just asked, ‘Can I go now?’

So, instead, we’ve been supported by the brilliant Momentum Charity, who funded eight music therapy sessions for her. Once those sessions finish, we’re unsure of where to go in terms of ongoing help and support.

There’s no doubt that losing Billy will be something she’ll have to deal with for the rest of her life, but it’s knowing how best to support her.

Winston’s Wish campaign for All-Party Parliamentary Group for Childhood Bereavement

Winston’s Wish is campaigning for better support for children like Maddie.

They reckon childhood bereavement is an overlooked issue, but 1 in 29 children will experience the death of a parent or sibling before they reach adulthood – one child in every classroom, and more needs to be done about it.

Winston’s Wish is asking people to write to their MPs to implore them to support grieving children and young people in their community by joining the proposed All-Party Parliamentary Group for Childhood Bereavement.

If you have any time, please think of Maddie and other children like her, download and amend this template letter, and email it over to your local MP.

I am scared that without the right ongoing support, Maddie might struggle with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Being ADHD she is also more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors, and those are well documented to hinder a child’s ability to thrive both personally and academically.

Read more at Winston’s Wish: https://brnw.ch/21wOMbQ

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