National Bereaved Parents Day 2023

Rosalind and Alistair

"I would like to share a few things which have helped me since losing our son Alistair to a rare cancer, Rhabdomyosarcoma in 2013. This year, on 22nd November, it will be ten years and not a day passes when I don’t think of him and, like all parents who have lost a child, I have a continuous ache in my heart. He was 24 when he died and still had so much more to give". - Rosalind

I like the funeral poem by David Harkins, “He is gone”, where it says “we should love smile & carry on”. I have used this as my mantra alongside a lesson I learnt from an inspirational young man, Henry Fraser, who after a freak swimming accident at just 17, suffers from complete paralysis from the shoulders down. Henry grew up in the same village as Alistair and his book “Little Big Things” encouraged me to believe that all times that just however bad things may seem “every day can be a good day”.

I’ve found that volunteering has really helped me to manage my grief. I volunteered for Home-Start for 7 years, focusing on the families and their needs, then subsequently as a retail volunteer for the hospice that gave such wonderful care to Alistair. I like to think that in a small way I am both giving something back whilst also helping to ensure that the care Alistair received is available to others.