Sandy Bear has been supporting children and their families in Pembrokeshire since 1996 following an identified need by School Nursing and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) – NHS. Those professionals gave their own time to help, working as volunteers and the service was dependent on them.

A formal application was made for Welsh Government grant support via the local authority which enabled the Health Board to employ two dedicated children’s professionals, allowing the service to become more structured. This helped the service develop further and demand for it increased.

By 2006, approximately 60 children were referred to the bereavement and loss service annually and by 2009, this figure reached 158.

Sadly, in 2016, following a review of grant funded children’s services in Pembrokeshire, Sandy Bear was decommissioned due to government funding becoming more limited.

Yet knowing how much the service was needed, a dedicated group of children’s health professionals, past users and interested parties met to discuss the next steps.

In 2017, a trustee board became established and founded an unincorporated charity with their status as a registered company coming into place in 2018, followed by registration with the Charity Commission in 2019. Sandy Bear Children’s Bereavement Charity was born.

“A key milestone was achieved on the 10th June 2018, two years after grant support for Sandy Bear stopped. We held our first therapeutic day as a newly formed charity at Scolton Manor and started accepting referrals in the October of that year.

We were supported with accommodation provided by Pembrokeshire Frame, until we could move into our own premises in May 2019 at Europa House in Milford Haven. The support of Valero, whose assistance through their Charity of the Year programme was pivotal to the charity being able to function and support so many vulnerable children and families.”

Since first opening their doors, Sandy Bear have helped over 150 people and their families through extremely difficult times supported by the generosity of fundraisers and volunteers. The friendly, animated bear of the charity’s title, remains a recognisable icon within the county.

The charity’s team say,

“We believe that no child or young person should suffer in silence following the death of a loved one. We work with children and young people following a bereavement, where the child or young person is struggling in coming to terms with their loss – our focus is always supporting children and young people primarily. We know that the child’s voice often gets lost during a bereavement and this can have negative consequences for the children involved. Our approach is a whole family approach to ensure the best outcomes for the children and young people we support.

We work with children on a one-to-one basis, through peer group support over several months alongside additional peer support for the caring adult within their lives. Our services have been developed over decades of experience and understanding of what works well and are evidence-based.

Once part of the Sandy Bear family, all of our service visitors are invited to Family Therapeutic Days, an important part of bereavement support, as they provide opportunities for remembrance and social connection as well as keeping in contact with others that they meet on their bereavement journey.”

The impact of Covid 19 has been felt deeply within the charity, with many bereaved children and young people being unable to access face to face facilities they so urgently need. It was important to the charity that they were able to reach out and support those who needed it during this period.

“During this time, we delivered much needed resources such as books and Sandy Bear teddies and telephone advice to our children, young people and families to ensure that they did not feel alone although they could not be with us in person.

We worked across regional and national networks to ensure we were up to date with the latest advice in terms of support through a pandemic which included sharing advice on how to discuss death with a child, what happens at a funeral and planning should the worse happens. We had online readings on our YouTube channel by our wonderful volunteers specifically for children.”

A number of fundraising events that were planned for June 2020 had to be cancelled or postponed, leading to a loss of income for Sandy Bear. Yet the charity and its supporters came together to ensure they could continue on through the pandemic.

“We can’t thank them enough for their ongoing help and good wishes. We also want to thank Pembrokeshire County Council and the Moondance Foundation who also came to our aid along with Children in Need.”

Going forward, the focus for the charity is on ensuring that every child or young adult and their family gets the help and support they need. Whether this is through Sandy Bear or another agency.

“Our ambition is that every child across Wales should be able to access the Sandy Bear service, there are very few charities in Wales that offer peer support for bereavement and the feedback we receive from the children, young people and families is so impactful; it motivates us every day to fight for the child’s voice.”

Find out more here.