As we’ve previously announced, Suicide Bereavement Support (SBS) for Cumbria and surrounding areas is due to close at the end of June 2024. This blog post is all about Every Life Matters, one of the organisations that will be carrying on, continuing to provide peer support in Cumbria (and beyond) and offering other services to those who are looking for support.

As many readers, members and supporters will know, Suicide Bereavement Support (SBS) for Cumbria and surrounding areas is due to close at the end of June 2024*. This is the first of a few blog posts about the organisations that will be carrying on, continuing to provide peer support in Cumbria (and beyond) and offering other services to those who are looking for support.

Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (or SoBS) is the only UK-wide organisation offering peer-to-peer support to all those over the age of 18 who are impacted by suicide loss.

Back in May, we blogged about an amazing initiative between Cumbria South Guiding and two of our Kendal members, Sarah and Emily, a mum and sister bereaved by suicide following the death of Sarah’s daughter and Emily’s sister, Heather. October has been a busy month for both Sarah and Emily but the Twinkle for Heather Challenge is now launched, with interest for Girlguiding units across the country.

Back in September, Emily and Kitty from SBS attended the annual SB UK conference in Manchester. This is an opportunity to share the latest research results, bring together experts and those with first-hand experience of bereavement by suicide and promote training for those supporting the suicide bereaved.

It's hard to cover everything but Emily and Kitty both made the most of their days and we want to share some of their discoveries, recommendations and thoughts in this blog.

Solway Series, an exhibition of photographs featuring the work of former lecturer, David Moyes, will open at Upfront Gallery near Hutton-in-the-Forest, Penrith (CA11 9TG) on Wednesday 6th September. This follows David’s successful fundraising exhibition at The Stove in Dumfries earlier in the year.

The Trustees recently signed off on the Annual Report for the year to 31st July 2023. You can download a pdf version of the full report and read more here.

Through Kendal group members, SBS for Cumbria and surrounding areas is involved in a new initiative with Cumbria South Guides that could make a huge positive difference in Cumbria and beyond in future. Here, SBS member, Claire van Grinsven, introduces the project and shares her feelings and first impressions about getting involved.

In July last year, we published a Blog by SBS North Cumbria facilitator, Sharon Tweedie, about the work that she and others from SBS were doing with new recruits to Cumbria Police. Here, one of those other volunteers, Cath Tate, reports on the recent sessions and the developments that are making a difference.

Following on from our previous blog about our peer support meetings across Cumbria (and online), there are additional questions that we’d like to answer so that you know a bit more about why we do what we do, who is involved and how we do it.

At the heart of our work are our monthly meetings, led by our volunteers and based in different locations around Cumbria. Each month, there are face-to-face meetings in Kendal, Barrow, Whitehaven and Carlisle and there is an online meeting on the first Thursday of each month too. We hope that this blog post answers a few of your questions about these meetings and what to expect if you come along.

Hidden Dumfries, a new exhibition of photographs featuring the work of David Moyes, opened in The Stove Cafe in the centre of Dumfries on Monday 20th February. David’s photographs are available for a donation of £50 each and the money raised will go to support Suicide Bereavement Support (SBS) for Cumbria and the surrounding areas.

Karen Dutton is the Project Lead for Let’s Talk Bereavement, a two-year project to build bereavement support capacity in North Cumbria. It started out as a focused project to design and deliver training in core bereavement support skills and has evolved in its first year to cover several more targeted areas, including support for those bereaved by suicide. As she reaches halfway in her role, Karen is now looking at how to ensure that the support continues and grows beyond the end of the programme in February 2024.

This halfway point seemed the ideal time to talk to Karen about Let’s Talk Bereavement.

We’ve recently added some newer books to our lists of recommendations and Resources, including  Michael Rosen's Sad Book. We’ve included reviews and comments from our members, which we hope will be useful. See what you think and we’d very much like to hear your feedback.

This blog is all about our new rainbow postcards - read on to find out more.

The idea for the rainbows came initially from our wanting to be able to share something about the nature of our group on literature which (in conjunction with our leaflet) could be used at events. The hope is that not only are we providing information so that people can find our website, Facebook page etc but, with the ideas in the rainbows, we are also showing we understand what others who are suicide bereaved are going through and want to offer practical and emotional support. We get it!

Barrow-based Trustee, Emily Griffiths has taken over from John Brown as Chair of Trustees for Suicide Bereavement Support (SBS) for Cumbria and the surrounding areas. John has led the organisation since it was formed in 2019 and prior to that he led SOBS Cumbria for nine years. Emily Griffiths became a member of the group after she was bereaved by suicide herself in 2008. She has been the SBS facilitator in South Cumbria since January 2020, leading the Barrow group’s monthly meetings since then and reinstating the monthly evening meetings in Kendal earlier this year, post-pandemic. Emily’s appointment takes immediate effect with John continuing as a Trustee of the charity.

Alex Phillimore is the Head of Communications and Development for The Farming Community Network (FCN). His colleagues, Josie and Jim, represented FCN at our Supporting Each Other Through Loss event in Barrow in October 2022. Given the rural nature of so many Cumbrian communities, with farming families at their heart, we thought it would be worth finding out and sharing more about this organisation.

Our Supporting Each Other Through Loss event in Barrow on Saturday (15 October) brought together representatives from 22 different local organisations, each one offering support to people dealing with some aspect of bereavement, mental health, addiction, suicide or loss.

“The aims of the day were to raise awareness of the need for support and also to show that support is available,” said Emily, local facilitator with SBS Cumbria. “I think we also achieved a strengthening of networks and contacts among those organisations that offer support - something that will be hugely valuable as we work together in future – and we also demonstrated the value of talking about suicide and creating opportunities for conversations that don’t avoid the issues a lot of people are facing.”

Suicide Bereavement Support (SBS) Cumbria and the surrounding areas financially supported three delegates to attend the national conference of Suicide Bereavement UK this year – Amber Cropley and Kitty Birtwistle from South Lakes and Frank Ritchie from Dumfries and Galloway. Amber and Kitty managed to grab a picture with Andy Airey, one of the #3DadsWalking and the opening speaker for our Barrow event on 15th October.

Frank Ritchie is a familiar face to SBS Cumbria members and supporters, well known for his ukulele playing at events and online. Frank spoke to Sharon Liptrott, a journalist on his local paper, the Dumfries and Galloway Standard, about his own experience of being bereaved by suicide. He encouraged others to contact local support organisations for help.