Young widows and widowers come together for big picnic in Cornwall
The event marks 25 years of charity WAY helping people across the Duchy
A picnic is being held for hundreds of young widows and widowers to come together across Cornwall.
The Big Picnic weekend will take place at Perranporth Beach at 1pm on 21st May, as the charity Widowed and Young celebrates 25 years of support.
The national event has taken place virtually in previous years due to the pandemic but this years picnic will take place in person for the first time since 2019.
Kim Gray, regional co-ordinator for Widowed and Young in Cornwall, said: “It’s not quite the same having a picnic from your garden via Zoom, but like everyone, we did what we could to maintain support for our local members during the Pandemic.
"It's good to be able to connect with other people who've also lost partners at a young age and it creates contacts. When you lose your partner you lose your social network.
"The Big Picnic will be an opportunity for those bereaved young to get together with other people in the local area who understand what they’re going through".
The charity is a support network run by volunteers who have been bereaved at a young age themselves and welcomes people under the age of 50. In it's 25 years, it has helped more than 14,000 people.
The annual weekend was started as a chance for people who have been widowed young to get together with other bereaved families, make connections and for other members of the public to find out how the charity works.
WAY's spokesperson continued:“We have seen a 25% growth in membership of our charity WAY Widowed and Young since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
“Of the young widowed people who have joined our charity over the last two years, more than 10% have been bereaved to Covid, which is an absolute tragedy.
"However, we’ve also seen a pandemic of loneliness, which has led more people to seek out bereavement support services through charities like WAY".
The charity continue to offer support to young widowers who've lost loved ones during, before or after the pandemic and currently have nearly 4,500 members across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
To find out more about what they do you can visit their website.