Dealing with the death of a parent, sibling, partner or close friend can be particularly difficult for younger people. Helping children, teenagers and young adults to understand and work through grief is crucial to their long-term wellbeing and happiness.

“It’s going to be hard to put into words just how much I want to thank you for yesterday. It was so beautiful and so right and so important. I had been really frightened of the funeral and what it would be like and that fear had been a constant factor in the last couple of weeks as it got closer. None of those fears were present yesterday, and the evening we spent was so calm and reflective that it really did feel as if a burden had been lifted from us all. I know we are only at the start of a long and very hard healing process but I really do feel that it’s begun and what you did for us is completely pivotal to that.”

I’m pleased to be a supporter of the excellent charity Let’s Talk About Loss, which aims to empower and support younger people through the experience of bereavement, with a wonderful mix of events and online resources. Its founder, Beth French, is an inspirational young woman who set up Let’s Talk About Loss after her mother’s death.