Winston's Wish   

Every 30 minutes a child in the UK experiences the death of someone in their immediate family. Winston's Wish was established in 1992 by Julie Stokes OBE, following a trip to the USA and Canada on a Winston Churchill Fellowship where she encountered and was impressed by child bereavement services.

In December 1998 our first documentary with Everyman - "Goodbye, God Bless" was screened on BBC1 and catapulted us to centre stage in terms of child bereavement. We continue to lead the way and have been involved in many more documentaries since, including the very special "Life Without Mum" transmitted in November 2006 by Channel 5 and more recently "Why did Dad choose to die?" in February 2007.

"Why did Dad choose to die?" was a ground breaking documentary made by award-winning documentary-maker, Jane Treays for Channel 4. This followed the lives of three families supported by Winston's Wish who were coming to terms with the suicides of their fathers. Although it's not an easy subject to discuss we believe it's crucial for children's voices to be heard as they are often the ones most affected by feelings of isolation, anger and guilt.

Winston's Wish is about building resilience as usually children need support and not therapy and we have found that in most instances there are simple, straightforward and practical ways that can make a real difference to a grieving child.

We believe, like any journey, it is reassuring to have fellow travellers and our partnership with the Ragdoll Foundation will ensure that we can continue our vital work.
Since 2005 the Ragdoll Foundation has been working with Winston's Wish, providing the funding to give important support to pre-school children who are bereaved.

Very young children may be frightened and confused - when asked where she thought heaven was one little girl said, "I think it's near Cornwall but Mummy won't take me." We know that support given at this early stage helps to prevent many potential emotional and behavioural problems and provides a positive view of the future for the children involved.