Support for suddenly bereaved people and those who care for them

Service Update

Due to funding pressures, the Sudden service is now closed.

If you are bereaved and in crisis, please use the resources on our website or call The Samaritans on 116 123. Please contact your GP directly if you require any immediate support and in case of an emergency, please call 999.

If you are a professional or community organisation in contact with bereaved people in the first days of their bereavement, we can provide you with free support books to help adults and children cope with their grief. To order free support books, please click here.

OUR SERVICES

Help after a sudden bereavement

FOR PROFESSIONALS

Helping you to support bereaved people

GIVE TO SUDDEN

Help us to help more bereaved people

From day one, onwards

Our vision is that people bereaved suddenly get help at a time of darkness to move to a brighter day.

We help when someone has died suddenly, or too soon in their life, because of

a sudden medical reason (including COVID-19), or terminal illness
injuries, caused by something that happened
suicide

Our role is to help people during the first ten weeks following a sudden bereavement. You can call us from day one, onwards.

At Sudden, your named case worker helps to:

Support you with a warm, listening ear
Give advice on bereavement issues
Get help you need, including emotional, practical, psychological, or legal

We also help communities and professionals to help suddenly bereaved people, better.

Sow a Seed of Hope

If you have been bereaved by a sudden death of any cause, you may like to create a tribute to your loved one.

Sow a Seed of Hope in our virtual flower garden to keep your loved one’s memory alive. For a small donation, you can choose a tulip, rose or daisy and fill this beautiful meadow with your messages of hope and love, to remember your loved one and help others who have been bereaved suddenly by any cause.

Coping with a sudden bereavement can be difficult, but finding ways to remember who you’ve lost can be comforting.

Sow a Seed of Hope

Graham’s story

Graham called Sudden after his wife Liz died suddenly following an illness. They had been married for 33 years and Graham felt bereft and overwhelmed with feelings of intense grief.

Over six sessions, Graham received support from his caseworker who offered a listening ear, helped him understand the impacts of a sudden bereavement and provided guidance to develop and build coping and resilience through such a devastating time.

Graham says: “Looking back, it is hard to realise how so very dark my days really were back then when Sudden came to my rescue.

“I honestly and sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, feel that if I hadn’t had the good fortune to be able to talk to my caseworker, and be listened to, as well as unload my many feelings at that time, I may not (without any dramatisation) be sat here now writing this.

“Thank you so very much Sudden.”