Online Support Group for Parents bereaved by COVID or by any cause during the pandemic (since March 2020)

12 July 2022, 19.00 – 20.30

Online Via Zoom

For the last 2+ years, the UK has been in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. Sadly, for some of us, the reality has come close to home in that we have experienced the death of our beloved son or daughter from COVID or another cause during this time.

This occasional online support group is for parents who have experienced the death of a son or daughter from COVID or any other cause during the last 24 months (since March 2020). Please note our sharing together in this group will not only focus on the cause of death of our child but very much on the impact of loss in this period of the pandemic.

The group will offer you an opportunity to talk and share with other parents some of the additional struggles around losing your child during the pandemic. These may include not being to see your son or daughter in hospital, travel with them in the ambulance, say goodbye to them - or perhaps you had to say goodbye online rather than in person. Ambulance or hospital staff may not have been as supportive as you would have liked or maybe communication was poor leaving you with many unanswered questions and anxieties about your child’s treatment and final days particularly if they were alone or you couldn’t be with them at any point.

You may also not have had the opportunity to avail of the normal rituals of a funeral service that can offer comfort, for instance having friends and families in attendance. Investigation and legal processes may have been delayed; you may be feeling isolated with your grief as friends and families may feel unable, or been wary of, being in touch because of the pandemic. You may also feel angry and deeply upset by the oft-quoted statistics and constant updates on numbers and deaths and that sense of your child and you as their parents being merely another statistic rather than individuals directly and personally impacted by the loss of your child in these particularly traumatic times. You may be in turmoil as you imagine or even know that more could be done to save your child.

You would be warmly welcome to join us to share these, and any other topics you would like to discuss, around losing a son or daughter to COVID or any other cause during this time. Group numbers will be limited so do please book via this web page to secure your place. We can only take bookings online and if we are fully booked priority will be given to those parents who have not attended a Compassionate Friends online support group before. Once you book, you will receive an automatic acknowledgment by email. Nearer the time, you will receive the details of the Zoom link to attend the group. Just a reminder to check your spam or junk email folders if you haven’t received the link for the online meeting by the day of the meeting.

Please contact events@tcf.org.uk if you have any questions or queries.

Please note that these online events are run by bereaved parent volunteers. Our volunteers are not professionals and so what we offer is a uniquely warm, comforting and supportive online group organised and facilitated by parents who have also experienced the loss of a child and have found understanding and hope themselves through The Compassionate Friends.

Please note this group is for bereaved parents in the UK only – if you want to join from abroad please contact us on events@tcf.org.uk

What others have said:

'My local support group that I attend is fantastic but I don't know anyone locally who has lost a child to Covid so I felt a greater connection to these parents. As we were all over the country, these connections wouldn't be possible without online facilities'

I finally felt it was a group where I belonged as they all 'got it'.

Because I have had no contact with anyone who has lost a loved one to Covid I found this group very beneficial. They helped me understand what I had been feeling, the questions which have been going through my head, the guilt feelings were the same as other parents were experiencing too. That I was not alone. Although it was difficult at times it was helpful to hear other people's experiences. It was helpful to be able to talk freely about my son and my loss, knowing the others didn't feel uncomfortable.