Lunching in style

Linsay Black (WAY’s PR) and I spend most of our time working away at home in front of our computer screens. So it was with great excitement that we arrived in London last night for today’s Woman of the Year Awards lunch.

Linsay nominated me as a way of raising awareness of WAY among the judging panel for this event. Little did we think we’d actually be invited to the event!

But Good Housekeeping chose me to win two tickets to the lunch from among all their reader nominations, so off we went to London. And we were assured it had nothing to do with our Patron Lindsay Nicholson who wasn’t involved in judging, but who was thrilled to see WAY chosen.

We had an amazing day and met women who had done so many incredible things with their lives. It was very humbling to be in the room. And also fantastic fun – especially the celeb spotting!

We tried hard to tell as many media people as we could about WAY – radio and TV presenters and journalists, so hopefully the day will result in some more coverage of WAY and the work all our volunteers do for young widows.

A fabulous surprise!

When Linsay’s phone rang on Thursday she got one hell of a surprise – it was Good Housekeeping ringing to invite Caroline and her to the Woman of the Year Awards lunch!

This prestigious award is given every year and sponsored by, among others, GH magazine.

Linsay nominated Caroline as a way of drawing attention to WAY among the judging panel – most of whom will probably have never come across us before.

It was a massive surprise to be told that Caroline had been chosen by GH to attend the lunch. She’s not in the running for the award, but there will be coverage of WAY in the magazine and possibly elsewhere, which is great news.

And Linsay and Caroline are off to London to enjoy some champagne and raise the profile of WAY among some very influential women!

Martin’s challenge of the week

Last week Martin Smith managed to prise himself away from his computer where he’s been spending days sorting out member details and working on Yuku, to make a speech.

This was for the Association of Crematorium Managers and we did wonder what sort of audience they’d make!

Luckily they loved Martin and his speech went down really well.

What’s more they were very enthusiastic about WAY and the work we do.

Not many of them had heard of us, which means we still have a mountain to climb in terms of publicity. But it also shows how useful it is to go along to events like this and speak about WAY.

What’s more – they even made a generous donation to WAY funds!

Working with CRUSE

Many WAY members have been helped by volunteers from CRUSE since their bereavement but in the past our two organisations have not worked that closely together.

While CRUSE has undoubtedly been an enormous help to a lot of our members, not all experiences have been entirely positive. CRUSE is very keen for our help in explaining the issues that surround losing a partner young, so that they are in a better position to support young widows. 

Paul Hutt and I went to their 50th anniversary conference in Warwick last week to give a workshop to around 50 CRUSE volunteers, to tell them about what it is really to lose your partner young.

We talked about our own experiences and then had a wide-ranging discussion about the issues young widowed people face, and the sorts of things others can do to help.

The volunteers – a few of whom had lost their own partner young – found it extremely helpful and all pledged to go back to their own areas and tell their colleagues about what they’d learned.

They took stacks of leaflets and also promised to recommend WAY to anyone they meet who was widowed under 50.

I hope we will be able to do more work with CRUSE – both helping their befrienders better understand the issues we face and as a way of complementing the service each organisation provides.

Spreading the word in Scotland

Last week Scottish WAY member Susan Brearley went to talk to a group of social workers who support bereaved people from across Scotland, in various different ways.

They had gathered for a full day’s agenda on bereavement care at the Marie Curie hospice in Edinburgh. Some work in palliative care and others specifically with children and so on.

“Although one or two had heard of WAY the others were not aware of our organisation. They were most interested and asked lots of questions specifically about how we could help if they referred anyone to us,” says Susan.

“I gave as much info as I could and they seemed pleased to have found WAY on behalf of those they helped.”

Promoting WAY

We’ve been given a great opportunity this year…to talk briefly about WAY at conferences around the country, being held for NHS staff and other bereavement support professionals.

I went to Maidstone on 27 May and faced an audience of 250!! A great way to get the word out about WAY and also meet up with other charities and learn from them. The conferences are being organised by Civil Funerals… and several friends from WAY are helping with future gatherings in London, Preston, Hove, Sheffield, Chelmsford and Caerphilly!