Store: Tributes

National bereaved parents day honoured with memorial services and a charitable donation

Posted on by ashleymarsh

To mark the significance of a national day to support grieving parents, Southern Co-op is holding four separate memorial services as well as donating 100 support boxes for newly bereaved parents.

In conjunction with National Bereaved Parents Day, Southern Co-op will be hosting memorial services on Monday 3 July at 6.30pm to provide support for anyone who has suffered the loss of a child.

These services will be held at The Oaks Havant Crematorium, East Devon Crematorium, Hinton Park Woodland Burial Ground and Funeral Directors, and Mayfields Woodland Burial Ground. The services will be followed by light refreshments.

For those unable to attend in person, the memorial services will also be live-streamed to ensure that individuals across the region can participate and find comfort in the shared experience of remembrance and support.

Holly Bramble​, Southern Co-op’s Community Lead, said: “National Bereaved Parents Day was set up in 2020 by a small charity called A Child of Mine as the founders wanted to bring together anyone affected by the loss of a child to show them that they are not alone.

“It is the charity’s 10th anniversary this year so we wanted to mark this special occasion by supporting their work with an £8,000 donation which will pay for 100 Butterfly Boxes.

“The Butterfly Boxes are a small gesture, but we are certain they will have a positive impact on bereaved parents.”

The Butterfly Boxes offer practical support and solace to newly bereaved parents, and include items such as a teddy bear, calming candle, tissues, healing crystals, mindfulness book, journal and pen, bereavement book tailored to the family’s loss, a pink/blue heart, and a bereaved parent’s pin badge.

National Bereaved Parents Day will take place on Monday 3rd July to raise awareness for all parents who have lost a child of any age, and from any circumstance. This year’s theme is ‘you are not alone’.

Gayle Routledge, Founder and Chief Executive of A Child of Mine, said: “What can I say. We are absolutely delighted that Southern Co-op is supporting our Butterfly boxes. This donation will make a huge difference to our families in their time of need and will give them some practical resources to help them through their grief. We are so grateful to Southern Co-op for supporting A Child of Mine; as a tiny charity we rely totally on the generosity of the community and this donation really will make a huge impact. Thank you so much!”

As part of Bereaved Parents Day, the charity is encouraging people to light a candle at 7pm which Southern Co-op’s branches of The Co-operative Funeralcare will be joining in with by having candles (battery operated) shining in their windows throughout July.

For more information on the memorial services or book your place, contact the individual venue which can be found at https://southern.coop/store-locator. Or for more information contact Southern Co-op’s free Bereavement Care team on 08081 691922 or via https://bereavementcare.uk/.

More than 14,000 donations made in memory of loved ones

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Just under £700,000 was donated to more than 450 charities in 2022 thanks to people donating in memory of their loved ones.

The donations were made via a free online memorials feature offered by more than 60 Southern Co-op funeral care homes.

In the top ten charities which received the largest overall donation last year, three of them were local including Rowans Hospice in Hampshire which had 961 donations totalling £50,853.

Claire McGinty, Client Experience and Aftercare Manager at Southern Co-op, said: “Each and every one of these donations is thanks to an individual who is grieving for a loved one. This is an incredibly generous thing to do and will clearly make a significant difference to all the causes who have benefitted.

“This is possibly even more touching at the moment when a lot of charities are struggling and need all the support they can get. Thank you to all those who donated.”

Over the last three years, a total of £2,082,095 was donated by families across the south of England via the free online tribute service offered by Southern Co-op.

Michelle Merrison, Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity’s In Memory Giving Manager, said: “We would like to thank everyone who has donated in memory of someone special in 2022. We are always deeply touched when people choose to remember us as they remember and celebrate the life and memories of a loved one and it is an honour to be able to continue to provide our vital services to more families in their names.

“The total received will have covered the equivalent of a month of Day Hospice sessions, providing specialist and individual support to help our patients maintain independence, improve their quality of life and manage their symptoms.”

The platform, supplied by MuchLoved, enables donations to any UK registered charity with no subscription fee which means many small charities can receive vital funding thanks to the generosity of your communities choosing to donate in memory of their loved ones.

Ruth Brady, Fundraising Manager for the Andrew Simpson Foundation, said: “The Andrew Simpson Foundation (ASF) was inspired by Olympic Gold and Silver medallist Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson MBE. Our mission is to transform lives through sailing. Absolutely everything we do is driven by our belief that all young people can excel and succeed in life and work.

“Thank you to all the incredible people who chose to support our work through MuchLoved. The funds raised through MuchLoved enabled the ASF to support over 5,000 young people in 2022.”

Alice Garratt, In Memory & Legacy Fundraiser at Thames Hospice, said: “A dedicated online tribute page can offer great comfort for friends and families to remember and honour a loved one, and fundraising in their memory makes such a difference to support our work.

“We are incredibly grateful to all the families who chose to set up an online tribute page in aid of Thames Hospice last year and a special thanks to Southern Co-op who facilitated tributes which have raised £11,400. This could pay for 253 hours of counselling time, which is six 1 hour sessions for 42 people.”

James Young, Individual Giving Fundraiser at St. Michael’s Hospice, said: “We want to say thank you to everyone who donated in memory of a loved one and helped raise an incredible £16,764.34 for St. Michael’s Hospice.

“These funds will help us provide free compassionate care to our patients and their families across North Hampshire. Thank you so much, we simply can’t do what we do without the kindness and generosity of our supporters.“

Lara Battersby, Communications Officer for Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, said: “We would like to express our sincere thanks to those who have generously donated in memory of their loved ones to Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance during 2022, raising a total of £604.58 in aid of our life-saving service.

“The charity receives no direct funding from the Government or the National Lottery and relies on the generosity of the public to help raise our operational costs of over £5 million per year, so we are incredibly grateful to receive this heartfelt support.”

Alison Taylor, Corporate Fundraising Manager at Chestnut Tree House and St Barnabas Hospices, said: “Thank you so much to all the staff and customers at Southern Co-op who have supported Chestnut Tree House and St Barnabas House throughout 2022. We wouldn’t be able to carry on providing the care we do without the support from our community.”

Free online support for National Bereaved Parents Month

Posted on by ashleymarsh

Two online support groups are being held in July – National Bereaved Parents Month – to give extra help to those affected by the loss of a child.

Being held by Bereavement Care, in association with Southern Co-op and its local funeralcare branches, the support groups are for anyone who has experienced the loss of a child, regardless of age or circumstance.

National Bereaved Parents Day was set up in 2020 by the charity A Child of Mine as it wanted to bring together anyone affected by the loss of a child to show them that they are not alone.

As well as the support groups, Southern Co-op will be donating £1,000 to the charity to make sure bereaved parents and families get access to invaluable emotional and practical support.

Ali Davison, Bereavement Coordinator at Bereavement Care, said: “Our team works with people everyday to help them through some of the darkest days of their lives. So we know how incredibly important it is to have a safe, confidential environment, with others that may understand what they are going through, coupled with the support from our Bereavement Coordinators.

“We are mindful that the awareness month is likely to evoke a lot of emotions and we want to make sure we have resource in place to support these parents.”

The free Bereavement Care service is offered by Southern Co-op to everyone in its local communities – regardless of whether they have used its services. To find your nearest Southern Co-op funeral branch, visit www.funeralcare.co.uk/our-funeral-directors/location-map/.

The free service is designed to help and support people struggling to deal with bereavement.

The two online support groups will take place on Wednesday 13 July from 3pm to 4pm and Wednesday 20 July from 10am to 11am.

Links can be found via Bereavement Care’s Facebook page or by emailing info@bereavementcare.uk.

For more information on Bereavement Care and the help available, visit https://bereavementcare.uk/ or call 08081 691922.

Online tributes provide essential place to remember loved ones during 2020

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With fewer people able to attend funerals in person in 2020, more donations than ever were made online in memory of loved ones, according to figures from a regional co-operative.

A total of £450,766 was donated in 2020 via the free online tribute pages offered by Southern Co-op, which helps support grieving families in Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Surrey, Sussex, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Despite only a slight rise in the actual number of funerals arranged, this was an increase of over 35% in online funeral donations when compared to the previous year.

The independent co-operative, which operates branches of The Co-operative Funeralcare and Caring Lady Funeral Directors, believes the increase is down to more awareness of charities needing extra support as well as fewer people being able to attend funerals in person.

Steve Pearce, Chief Operating Officer for funeral services at Southern Co-op, said: “Just under 300 charities received donations through our online memorial tributes. The majority of these will have been hit hard by the pandemic so the support is likely to be invaluable.

“Sadly, a lot of the families we supported last year were also affected by the pandemic. It‘s difficult to describe the effect it has had on so many but our funeral co-ordinators have done everything they can to lighten people’s burdens and our bereavement care colleagues have been on hand to offer free counselling which has been vital.

“The fact that people are continuing to think of others, despite their own grief, is remarkable and shows the strength we have as communities working together in times of need.”

There were a total of 11,211 individual donations made in 2020 – an increase from 7,455 in 2019.

People made an average of £40 per donation via the online memorial feature which also allows friends and family to set up a personal tribute page, to light virtual candles, share memories, stories, photos and videos of loved ones.

The top three charities to which people donated the most were Cancer Research UK, Rowans Hospice in Hampshire, and Alzheimer’s Society.

Other local charities in the top ten were Phyllis Tuckwell hospice care in Surrey and Hampshire, which received £23,774 of donations; St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Chichester which received £12,909 of donations; and Mountbatten, end of life support on the Isle of Wight, which received donations of £7,812.

Jonathan Davies, Chief Executive of MuchLoved, the bereavement charity that provides the online tribute platform, said: “2020 was an incredibly difficult year for everyone, not least those bereaved and the funeral industry working tirelessly to care for them.

“We are delighted that Southern Co-op branches were able to use the MuchLoved platform to help those families, and that so much has been raised for such worthy causes.

“Since the start of our partnership together, over £1 million has been raised for charitable causes, which is an incredible milestone to have achieved. We look forward to working together to continue this success in the future.

“Our charity was founded to support bereaved people and help them cope with their grief, and working with Southern Co-op means we can offer this support and care to more people at the most difficult of times.”

For more information about online tributes, visit www.funeralcare.co.uk/tributes-and-donations.

 

Charities receive £330,000 in memory of loved ones

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Thousands of donations have been made to local and national charities thanks to the generosity of those who have recently lost a loved one.

A total of 7,455 donations were made in 2019 via a free online memorial feature offered by Southern Co-op, the regional, independent co-operative.

The donations total more than £330,000 – an average of more than £44 per donation.

In 2019, 7,455 donations were made totalling £330,824. This is an increase from 2018 when 6,145 donations were made totalling £266,104 – an average of £43 per donation.

Steve Pearce, Chief Operating Officer for funeralcare at Southern Co-op, said: “The charities people chose to donate to can be a reflection of something their loved one held dear to them or a charity that supported them at a time of need.

“We know that people donated to 351 different charities last year but what we can’t quantify is how many people that went on to help. The donations would have made a difference to thousands of people’s lives and this is incredibly special.”

The online memorial feature also allows friends and family to set up a personal tribute page to light virtual candles, share memories, stories, photos and videos of loved ones.

The top five charities which had the most donations received between £14,000 and £25,000 each.

These included two regional charities Phyllis Tuckwell, which cares for terminally ill people and their families throughout West Surrey and part of North East Hampshire, and Rowans Hospice, which offers specialist palliative care to those with life-limiting illnesses in South East Hampshire.

For more information about online tributes, visit www.funeralcare.co.uk/tributes-and-donations.

£170,000 donated in memory of loved ones

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In the last year, more than 4,200 people have donated money to charity in memory of a loved one via Southern Co-op’s free online memorial feature.

Just under 200 charities have benefited from the contributions as loved ones have asked friends and family to make donations to charities rather than flowers at funerals.

The donations have all been made via Southern Co-op’s memorial webpage, run in partnership with MuchLoved, which launched two years ago in September 2016.

As well as an online donation, the online memorial feature allows friends and family to set up a personal tribute page to light virtual candles, share memories, stories, photos and videos of loved ones.

Steve Pearce, Southern Co-op’s Chief Operating Officer for End of Life Services, said: “Since we launched our online tribute service, we have been blown away by the generosity of those remembering their loved ones. A lot of the chosen charities have meant a great deal to the person who has passed away – such as a hospice or a support service.

“It is really special to see so many local charities being chosen to receive donations in memory of a loved one. We find the tribute pages a really helpful and long-lasting way to help remember someone special.”

In the last year, the average donation made in memory of a loved one has been as much as £40 per donation.

The three charities which had the most donations received more than £10,000 each. These were Cancer Research UK, Phyllis Tuckwell – which cares for terminally ill people and their families throughout West Surrey and part of North East Hampshire, and Rowans Hospice – which offers specialist palliative care to those with life-limiting illnesses in South East Hampshire.

Click here for more information about online tributes.