Sudden is a charitable service for people who have been bereaved by a death that happened suddenly or too-soon in someone’s life.
This could be due to COVID-19 or another unexpected disease or undiagnosed medical reason, an event such as a work-place incident or terrorism, or suicide.
Following some kinds of death, for example, deaths on roads, we refer immediately into other specialist services, where we know these exist and operate to similar standards of care. The National Road Victim Service is run by the same team as Sudden and can be contacted here.
Sudden is also for people who are caring for suddenly-bereaved people.
Our vision
The vision of Sudden is that people bereaved, in ways that are sudden or too soon, get the help they need at a time of darkness to move forwards to a brighter day.
Our mission
Our mission is to ease the suffering of people bereaved by any kind of sudden or too-soon death.
During the current pandemic we are focused on supporting people bereaved by COVID-19 and all people bereaved in shocking ways by other causes and who are suffering from the challenges of isolation during ‘lockdowns’ and challenges of restrictions: restrictions on visiting people before they die, being close to their bodies, and memorialising in normal gatherings.
Our objectives
The work we do
To find out more about the help we are providing, go to Our services.
Our funding
The Sudden service was launched in July 2020 after being awarded vital pandemic funding from the Government, the National Lottery Community Fund and Barclays, in recognition of Brake’s expertise in provision of early intervention care for people bereaved in unexpected and horrific circumstances.
Sudden is extremely thankful for this initial funding which enabled the Sudden service to be launched to deliver help to people in 2020 and 2021.
Our administration
Sudden is hosted by the charity Brake. Brake is the national charity supporting bereaved people whose loved ones have died suddenly in road crashes. Brake has been running the acclaimed National Road Victim Service for more than two decades, which is funded by multiple government agencies.