Inspiring women
Helping other people brings huge rewards, as the testimonies from these wonderful volunteers show
Every June, Volunteers’ Week gives us a chance to thank people like these women who give their time to make the world a better place. If you’re thinking of becoming a volunteer, you are in good company. More than 14 million people in the UK offer their time for free at least once a year, providing crucial support to all sorts of worthwhile causes, people in need and communities. Volunteering has a host of wonderful benefits for you too. It can feed your passion, boost your wellbeing, teach you new skills and instil a sense of belonging. It can also be life-changing, as these women testify.
‘VOLUNTEERS HELPED ME SURVIVE LOSING MY DAUGHTER’
Adelle Brenner, 49, is married with four children, including Celia, her three-year-old daughter who died in 2011. Adelle runs a support group for bereaved parents in Bath, and has recently been elected as a trustee of The Compassionate Friends, a charity supporting bereaved parents and their families.
When we lost our beloved daughter, our lives were blown apart. Celia was three when she died suddenly in a tragic accident. Afterwards, it was as though I was suspended in time, the world continuing around me while I was in a state of shock, unable to process what had happened.
Desperate, I posted on an online forum asking for help. Someone recommended The Compassionate Friends (TCF) and I found a local volunteer, who’d lost her daughter five years earlier. Visiting her home was a pivotal moment; it was the first time I felt a glimmer of hope that I could survive what had happened, and rebuild my life and family.
In the following months and years, I would call the TCF helpline to speak with other bereaved parents, whose kindness, empathy and wisdom helped me through my grief. It meant I could talk to someone who genuinely understood what I was going through, and it gave me the strength to carry on.
After six years, I wanted to help others as I’d been helped, and pass on the kindness that had been so transformative for me. Following some volunteer/group facilitator training, I started the Bath area TCF support group in September 2017. Celia would have been nine by then, and starting the group not only gave me the chance to support others, but also a place where I can talk about her with other parents (as we share happy memories of our children). I hope that sharing my story is reassuring to parents in the very dark early days of their grief that they will not always feel so bad.
We have around 15 regular attendees who meet every month to talk and support one another, plus newly bereaved parents just starting out on their grief jour
