Ask yourself, “If you were to
die tomorrow, what would life be like for your family?”
Yesterday we attended the
launch of ‘Plan If’ a new
campaign by the Childhood
Bereavement Network which Ellipse are supporting and funding. The launch
took the form of a tea party and was held in the atmospheric and appropriate
ancient crypt in St. Mary Le Bow church. Writer and columnist Annalisa Barbieri
was in charge of the hosting the event.
The Plan If campaign aims to
encourage all parents to put in place the practical and personal things that
would make a difference to their children and families if they were to die
while their children were still young. Things like wills, plans for
guardianship, life insurance, family stories and letters for children to read
in the future, which would make a difference to their children should one or both
parents die.
Alison Penny, Co-ordinator of
the Childhood Bereavement, spoke about the startling results of their survey of
over 2000 parents of children under 18 which revealed:
·
Only 1 in 4
parents of young children have an update will, yet almost 73% think it’s important
to have one
·
Half of parents
have no plans in place regarding the guardianship of their children should both
parents die before the children grow up
·
1 in 6 parents
felt that even the thought of guardianship was ‘too hard to think about’
·
Only 1 in 3 parents
that someone in their family would know how to access important financial
information if they were to die
·
83% of parents
have written a letter for their child(ren) to be read after their death
We then has the opportunity
to hear first–hand from Gemma and Richard, both bereaved as children talk about
their experiences and what difference they felt a Plan If could make to
families.
Gemma spoke about losing her
mother when she was 10, how she realised her mum must have had life insurance
or pension as that helped them pay off their mortgage. She also said how she
wished she had a letter from her mother to read or even some stories written
down of what her mum was like when she was a young girl.
Richard shared his story by
saying ‘‘My grandmother died when I was 13, my aunt died when I
was 14, the dog died when I was 15, my grandfather died when I was
16, my mum died when I was 17 and my dad when I was 19’. He recalls and is
aware that it helped that he was able to inherit somewhere to live which
gave him the security he needed when everything else had gone.
John Ritchie
closed the campaign launch by speaking of his own personal experience of being
bereaved as a child and highlighting that the first step in a Plan If should be
ensuring that you have life insurance sorted to help your family in case of financial
difficulties. Money enables
everything else to remain in place – home, location, schools – so is a
foundation from which resilience can emerge. The financial aspects are
critical but far from the whole story as #Plan If will so vividly illustrate.
Every 13 minutes in the
UK, a child is bereaved of a parent. By the age of 16, one in twenty young people
will have had a parent die. Most people don’t want to think about it, but all
parents need to make a Plan If. The Childhood bereavement network is hoping
that the campaign will bring about more openness around talking about death. For
information on the campaign or advice on how to make your own Plan If, visit
the dedicated website.
