Sally Taylor MBE - BBC South Today
Why I back Simon Says
When Sally Stanley came to see me 5 years ago, I had no idea what to expect. She told me an extraordinary and tragic story about her husband dying and the lack of help and support for her young family afterwards.
I couldn’t help but be impressed by her strength and determination to do something to help others.
Here was a woman coping with the loss of a husband she adored and loved, trying to explain to her children why it had happened, and she was selflessly thinking of other people in the same predicament. How could I not be involved?
The other reason is that it brought back painful memories of my own and I couldn’t believe things hadn’t changed in almost 40 years. When I was just 5 years old and my sister was 2, we became used to seeing an ambulance turn up to take our mother to hospital. She had breast cancer and just a year later she died. I remember that my sister and I were staying with an Aunt in Suffolk; we had both been packed off when things became too difficult for my mum and dad. Sadly, one of the few childhood memories I have is of the night my father had to drive to Suffolk to tell us mum had died.
I have no other memories of my mum, and my sister and I often talk about whether things might have been better for us if we had been offered counselling or even someone to talk to during those difficult times. It was the 1960s and, in those days, it was believed to be better for children not to know anything, in a way to protect us, and I don’t blame anyone for that.
So when I discovered that very little had changed I was amazed and had no hesitation in getting involved. Simon Says is there to help children and their families through bereavement. It is a difficult time for all but especially for children who may not understand what is going on. When you consider the trauma they’re going through and the emotions from anger to disbelief and despair, it is staggering that there isn’t something formally in place for them. So Simon Says is filling that much needed gap. I can’t think of a better charity to be involved with and one which is needed so badly.
I am proud to be the patron and hope that maybe Simon Says can ease some of these children’s pain. I certainly wish it had been there for me when I was a child.
