Amesbury couple optimistic for charity's future after "tough" few years
Charity aims to help other bereaved parents
An Amesbury couple who set up a charity for bereaved parents a few years ago say they are looking forward to actually starting their plans, after a "tough" couple of years.
Natalie and Mick Brannon achieved charity status for 'Blue Sky Retreat' in October 2020, following the death of their son William died just days after turning 9.
It was given that name as Mr Bluesky by ELO was one of William's favourite songs.
However due to the pandemic, all of their events and fundraisers for the first two years were cancelled and, like everyone else, was forced to try and raise money virtually.
The Brannons want to give bereaved parents a safe space to process and understand what they've been through with people who have had similar experiences.
This can be through support groups they're trying to set up but they also want to open a retreat for "almost wild glamping", as Natalie calls it.
They've got some woodland at the moment they can borrow, but they're looking for more areas around South Wiltshire.
Eventually they want 10 static caravans/shepherd huts which parents who have lost a child can go and stay at,
They're fundraising for an initial £50,000 to be able to get some land and sort a planning application, but the whole project will cost around £455,000.
Mick and Natalie told Greatest Hits Radio:
"Covid has been a bit of a dampener I must admit. We got our charity number October 2020 so the absolute beginning of covid wasn't too bad, but the last year and a half has been a struggle. The first year obviously we had to cancel all of our events, while the second year things were only just starting to open up, so this year we can actually start now we can now start doing our support groups and more events and actually start getting out there, which is good.
"We have actually managed to raise quite a little bit of money through lockdown to buy company equipment and things and it may seem a bit weird for a bereaved parent to go camping but we're going to be going out and we've got a nice little bit of woodland that we can borrow at the minute and we're gonna have psychologists on hand, mental health first aiders, other bereaved parents there as well and we'll just go through 24 hours and we'll teach them how to light a fire with flint and steel, make proper food, shelters etc.
"But the idea of it is to keep people's hands busy and you've got like minded people and what normally tends to happen there is you'll just start talking about stuff. But there is no pressure for anybody to talk, it's gonna be a safe place, if they don't want to talk about anything, they don't have to and at any time, if they just want to walk off and have 5 minutes yourself, or even if they just want to go home then they can. But having like minded people and other support there in the background can be a big help.
"Personally, I could never say that I understand what another bereaved parent is going through, because obviously emotions are completely different. Grief has no script, they could be on a different path. But just to actually have somebody there just to be able to talk about your little one without anybody worrying that they're gonna upset you. It's just nice to know that there's somebody out there who knows what it feels like to have that hole in your heart."
You can find out more about the charity by going to blueskyretreat.org.uk.