National UK Helpline 0345 123 2304 helpline@tcf.org.uk
Open every day (from 10 am - 4 pm and 7 -10 pm).
The line is always answered by a bereaved parent who is there to listen and support.
Join us for the Worldwide Candle Lighting Online
Join us for the
24th Annual
Worldwide Candle Lighting

on Sunday 13th December.

Gather together online via Zoom from 6.30 pm for a 6.40 pm start.

Candles lit at 7 pm

...that their light may always shine...

This year, as restrictions continue throughout the UK, we warmly invite you to join us in a special online event where we will share some words and light candles together to honour and remember all our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and grandchildren who left too soon.
Numbers are limited for this event so if you do wish to join us please register soon. Please note the event is open to bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents only.
Now open...

Annual Book of Remembrance

Throughout December and particularly on the day of the Worldwide Candle Lighting - 13 December - you can post a message of remembrance and photo of your son, daughter, brother, sister or grandchild.

Do share the link with friends and family who may also wish to remember your loved one at this time.
Finding mourning light through the mist of grief
Last month author and blogger, Andrea Corrie spoke online to a packed house about her own journey after the death of her son, her grief 'toolbox' and how she found glimpses of the 'mourning light'.


Andrea's book Living In the Mourning Light is available from our online bookshop.
Coping with the winter holidays
Suggestions and ideas for coping at Christmas and during the winter holidays for bereaved parents and their families

The winter holiday period will be different this year, but we hope that some of the ideas in this short booklet - Coping with Christmas - will help to support you as we move into December - whether this is your first Christmas without your loved one or you are further on in your loss.


Limited stock...high quality Christmas cards

Painted especially for The Compassionate Friends by Clare in memory of her daughter, Annaliese.

If you are sending cards this year please do send ours - not only is it a great fundraiser for TCF, but sending these cards also raises awareness of our charity and the peer-to-peer support we can offer. Thank you.
Please note that due to the pandemic there may be delays in posting orders to you. Please order early to be sure of receiving your cards in good time.
#ShareYourStory - NGAW2020
#ShareYourStory during
2-8 December 2020

The week is driven by The Good Grief Trust, an umbrella organisation with the vision that anyone in the UK suffering a bereavement be offered tailored support. There will be huge amount of media and press coverage during the campaign, culminating in the illumination in yellow of many public buildings - including London's St Paul's Cathedral - on 8 December at 6 pm.

Friday 4th December the focus will be on the grief of young people
Saturday 5th December will cover men's grief
Monday 7th December will focus on the loss of a child of any age and baby loss

During the week - if you wish - remember your loved one on your social media. Please tag #thecompassionatefriendsuk on Facebook or @TCFcharityUK on Twitter. Use the hashtags #ShareYourStory, #thecompassionatefriendsuk and/or #NGAW20 on all your posts.
We will be widely sharing the NGAW2020 campaign posters on social media - both represent the best of TCF's peer support - as we continue to share our grief and stories of love and loss despite our physical distance from one another. By sharing together we can offer hope to others.
Could you offer support as a grief companion?
The Grief Companion Scheme aims to offer peer support and friendship to newly bereaved parents.

Would you like to join our existing team of grief companions offering support to parents who are in their first or second year of bereavement? We are particularly - but not exclusively - seeking parents who have lost a child to suicide. We welcome applications from parents who are 3 or more years past your own bereavement and feeling more resilient around your own loss.
Receiving our supportive magazines

This week we will be mailing our supportive magazines - written by the bereaved for the bereaved - to donating members of TCF...Compassion, SIBBS Newsletter and the Childless Parents Newsletter.

If you would like to receive your own copies 4 times a year please join our charity. You can join by donating as much or as little as you want - £50 a year, £5 a month - whatever you can manage.

Your donation will be warmly appreciated and will be used to support our work with bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents.

Can you help us during December?
Please help our charity's support of parents bereaved by suicide.

The Compassionate Friends is taking part in the Aviva Community Fund's crowdfunding campaign to support our work with parents bereaved by suicide. We set an initial target of £500 which we have burst through and now are going for our stretch target of £1,000.
To nominate TCF all you need to do is visit the link movementforgood.com/12days and click ‘nominate a charity now’. Put in our charity number 1082335 and 'Community' for the type of charity. 
There's still time to nominate The Compassionate Friends in Ecclesiastical's 12 days of giving!

The first 10 winners in the 12 days of giving will be drawn next Monday – 7 December - each winning £1,000. Nominations will be taken right up to midnight on 21 December, and if we are not drawn as a winner one day all our nominations roll over to the next.

The more nominations we get, the greater our chance of winning, so please do tell family and friends so that they can get involved too. 
Shopping in December?

Shop at AmazonSmile - it's exactly the same as shopping at Amazon with all their usual books and products - and supports TCF at no cost to you.

Sign up to easyfundraising.com and donate to TCF every time you shop at over 4000 online stores - it costs you nothing.
Sponsor a leaflet

Shortly we will be publishing and printing four new or updated supportive leaflets.

* A father's grief
* Grieving for our young child (ages 2-10 years old)
* Grieving for our pre-teen or teenage child (ages 11-18 years old)
* Grieving multiple losses (for parents who have lost more than one child)

Anyone can sponsor, but often sponsorship is in memory of a beloved child or children. We include your message of remembrance or dedication. Cost is £350 per leaflet.

If you would like to offer sponsorship please email by 10 December. Thank you so much. It can be a wonderful way off honour or child by enabling us to provide supportive leaflets to others.

And in other news...
A first for TCF - an online AGM!

Thank you to everyone who came to our AGM last month and helped to make it such a success.

It was great to see you and fantastic to hear about the activities of our charity, how we have grown and developed our funding, our services and our plans for 2021 and beyond.
"I smile because I can".

In a recent Talk to Ben podcast, Ben talks to former Chair and current Trustee of TCF Maria Ahern. Maria is the mother of Ben's late friend James Ahern. James was Maria's only child; he died in August 2014 and Maria discusses how she has grieved for her son and her involvement with TCF.

New dates announced for group facilitation skills training

If you are interested in starting a support group for bereaved parents in 2021and would like to attend our online training over two Saturday mornings on 30 January and 6 February 2021 (9.30 am - 1 pm) please contact us by email or complete this application form.

More details about volunteering as a support group facilitator are here. We are looking for facilitators based all over the UK, and particularly in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, South West England, North West England and East Anglia.
For more information on support and services for bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents see our website at the buttons below.