So what does the WAY Press Officer actually do?

Find out how WAY’s Press Officer, Linsay Black, spends her day here:

http://www.charitycomms.org.uk/articles/so_what_do_you_do/linsay_black

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.

Have you bought a ticket?

Tickets are selling fast for the Small Charities Car Draw – have you bought yours?

There’s a fantastically groovy little Fiat 500 car for one lucky winner – and you can help WAY buy buying a ticket here!

Tickets cost £2 and WAY will get £1.95 for every ticket sold.

You can’t win if you’re not in – so buy some tickets and boost your chances now!

Great publicity in Oxford

Three of our Oxfordshire group gave interviews to the Oxford Mail recently and a very moving piece appeared on Saturday.

You can read it here.

Many thanks to Sarah Wilkinson, the area contact, Ali dos Santos and Alistair Morris for sharing their stories with the paper.

It’s not an easy thing to do, but these stories are crucial to help get the word out about WAY. Thanks guys,

Caroline

WAY's North East Area Contact in the news

Gaynor Williams, who runs WAY in the North East along with Debbie Knivett, is featured in The Northern Echo today, talking about WAY and how it helped her after her husband died.

You can read her interview here.

International Widows Day Media Coverage

Caroline Doughty, WAY’s Chairman, and Brian Smith, a WAY member from Godalming, were interviewed this morning on BBC Southern Counties radio about being widowed young and bringing up their children alone.

The show’s producer Mandy de Souza said the interview ”was really strong and we got a number of calls from widows/widowers off the back too, so it clearly had an impact”.  

We are aiming to get a link on the WAY website to some of the radio interviews we’ve done as they are only available on iPlayer for a week. Watch this space!

Father's Day Press Coverage

Facing Father’s Day without Dad was the subject of an article in Friday’s Edinburgh Evening News, featuring me, (WAY’s Press Officer Linsay Black) and another WAY member in Edinburgh, Yvette Brough.  The story mentioned WAY and the challenges of bringing up your child alone following the death of your partner.

You can read the story here.

WAY on the radio again

WAY Chairman Caroline Doughty is on the radio twice today! 

She is being interviewed on BBC Radio Manchester’s Heather Stott programme at about 11.10 this morning.  She’ll be talking about being a young widow and sharing some thoughts from the book she wrote “If There’s Anything I Can Do…”  a guide for friends and families of the recently bereaved based on her own and her friends’ experiences.

Then at 12 noon (ah, the life of a media superstar!) she dons the headphones again for BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire’s Annie Othen Show, along with Coventry WAY member Derek Fraser, to talk about bringing up your children alone.  Derek’s wife Mandy died eight years ago when their three children were under five.

You can listen through the magic of the BBC i-player and we will also try to put up a recording on the WAY website - watch this space.

Word Spreads …………..

Having been interviewed on BBC Radio Solent from the BBC Radio Devon studio this afternoon, WAY Chairman Caroline Doughty was “kidnapped” by one of the Radio Devon presenters for another interview about WAY on his show; being a young widow; bringing up her daughters alone…. etc.  She was surprised, in a good way, that the first question was “Tell us about Nick”  Very few people ask about the partner you have lost and she was pleased to talk about him, even though she was a bit thrown by the question!

I tried to use the listen again service, but it did not seem to be working – we are hoping to get lots of radio interviews up on the WAY website soon – watch this space.

WAY Chairman on local radio show today

Caroline Doughty, WAY’s Chairman and Isle of Wight WAY member Stephen Ward are being interviewed on BBC Radio Solent’s Charlie Crocker Show at 1.30 pm today.  They will be talking about what it is like to bring up your children alone after your partner has died, tying in with Father’s Day on Sunday and International Widow’s Day next Tuesday June 23rd.

You can listen live through the BBC website or use the listen again facility.  We will also try to put a link on to the WAY website so that people can listen at leisure.