Charity hopes to fill demand for appropriate cards to help grieving children
One of the charities helped by The Light Fund is wishing for a greeting card publishing partner to help and comfort youngsters coping with grief.
Winston’s Wish supports young people up to the age of 25 after the death of someone important in their lives and want to create a range of sympathy cards suitable for children as it’s felt that this is an area still lacking by what’s currently on offer.
Paul Moore, the charity’s director of fundraising and marketing, explained: “Time and time again we’ve heard the same story from children who recount the experience of sitting quietly surrounded by relatives and family friends who have brought cards of sympathy for the adult in the room, but leave no words of comfort for the child who is grieving for their loved one.”
Winston’s Wish worked with around 60,000 children and young people between April 2022 and March 2023, and estimates over 46,000 under 18s are bereaved of a parent each year. All its services are free with 90% of funding coming from public donations, and it received a £5,000 Light Fund grant last year to carry on providing its Live Chat Service across the UK.
Now 21, Henri was one of those who was helped as she was just 11 when her mum died, and she explained that the family received over 100 sympathy cards, but only one she felt was for her.
On opening the cards, Henri said: “It made me feel more upset as all the cards I kept opening were sad or unhappy designs. I received a card from my friend that had two teddy bears hugging on it, this stuck out to me as it was a suitable design for my age and I didn’t associate the card with death, I associated it with my friend thinking of me.”
Paul and Henri discussed the difficulty of people finding the right words to say, and she said she felt she hadn’t yet processed the death of her mum and the constant stream of cards that weren’t intended for her made her question: “Why am I not sad when everyone else here seems to be sad?”
The charity is now looking for publisher partners to help provide suitable greeting cards specifically designed for children and young people grieving a friend or family member ,with Paul making contact with publisher Cinnamon Aitch, Progressive Greetings and the GCA in his quest.
Having more youngster-focused greeting card designs in shop’s displays will, Paul believes, “encourage consumers to consider children following the death of a loved one”.
He explained that one in 20 children experiences the death of a parent before the age of 16, meaning a child is bereaved of a parent every 20 minutes in the UK, and Winston’s Wish wants to “ensure the support they receive is age-appropriate and filled with hope for a future that doesn’t need to be defined by their grief”.
Feedback has shown the team that talking about loss or sending sympathy doesn’t mean much to children so language is important alongside honesty.
Paul can be contacted on pmoore@winstonswish.org and added that they’d like sympathy designs that a youngster’s school friend would feel comfortable sending, and hopes the cards could include Winston’s Wish’s details on the back, signposting who to contact for help with their grief – and there could possibly be an insert with suggestions of what to write to the recipient.
