DHL eCommerce event supports Guy’s Gift

On Thursday 27th February, we were invited to attend the launch of DHLs new eCommerce hub in Coventry.

Brian and Lisbeth attended the event, and met with many customers of DHL, and were able to share about what Guy’s Gift does in our local community, and why bereavement support for children and young people is so vital.

We met lots of interesting people, and were able to talk about Guy’s Gift mission as well as getting some lovely offers of support from local businesses.

As part of the event, DHL have donated 35 ‘e-Comm Eddy’ bears to Guy’s Gift. These bears will be finding their way to new homes with children and young people who we support.

We’d like to say a great big THANK YOU to Adam Webb and his team at DHL for supporting Guy’s Gift and inviting us along to the event last week.

If you would like to donate to the DHL fundraiser running alongside this event, you can do so here:

Bereavement Support Packs delivered to UHCW

Last week, we delivered another set of Bereavement Support Packs. This time they have been donated to the palliative care ward and children's ward at UHCW.

Lisbeth Bakewell (Operations Manager) delivers Bereavement Support Packs to UHCW staff

We have three different packs available, tailored for pre-school children, primary school children, and teenagers.

Example Bereavement Support Pack

Our packs include a HappySelf Journal for writing/drawing their thoughts and feelings, an age appropriate bereavement-themed book, activity sheets and colouring pencils, a fidget toy and Buddy Bear himself. We have also provided information and guidance to parents and the hospital staff as we know how tricky conversations around death and dying can be.

We would like to thank Intercity Technology for their generous donation for this project, and we are really looking forward to hearing about the difference the packs will make to our local community .

The team at Codemasters who volunteered their time to put together 60 Bereavement Support Packs

Thanks also to the team at Codemasters who kindly volutneered their time to put the packs together for us in December.

Each pack is donated for free, and this is made possible by the fabulous donations from the likes of Leamington Spa Rotary, Intercity Technology, and from you.

If you would like to make sure that there’s a Bereavement Support Pack in your local hospital, ready for a child or young perosn to use when the time arises, you can make a donation here.

Each pack costs around £35 to produce, and has been carefully curated to make sure it includes everything a family experiencing the death of a loved one may need in that moment.

Guy's Gift opening hours New Year 2024/25

Guy’s Gift will be closed from lunchtime on Christmas Eve, until Thursday 2nd January 2025.

If you get in touch with us in the meantime, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can when we reopen in the new year.

For now, we wish you all a pleasant New Year break.

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Lantern Walk 2024

After having to cancel the Lantern Walk last weekend, we were so pleased to be able to offer a stripped back Lantern Walk yesterday (15th December) and it was lovely to see so many families still able to attend.

We met at 3:30 at Ryton Pools, and took a short walk with our lanterns to a meeting point.

At the meeting point, Rebecca shared a few words with the group about the importance of hold moments for those we love who are no longer with us. Libby shared a poem which Sophie had written for the group, and several within our group shared about who they were remembering and what the walk meant to them.

It’s always a special afternoon, and to know we were able to hold some time together despite the storm last week, was really important.

Thanks to all who joined us yesterday, and we look forward to seeing many of you join us again next year too.

Spider-man event 2024

We were recently invited to an event hosted by The Brother’s Trust, where a number of Guy’s Gift families headed down to Battersea Power Station to a screening of Spider-man: No Way Home.

The event took place on Sunday morning, 8th December, and families attending were treated to a meet and greet with Tom Holland (Spider-man himself!) along with getting a photo with him. They then received gorgeous goodie bags from M&S, and found their seats to watch the film.

After the film, Tom returned for a Q&A with the children, answering questions ranging from how he got into acting, all sorts of questions about the films, if he might marry Zendaya (he refused to answer this one), and what his worst Christmas present ever was.

Tom Holland’s whole family were there, as the heads of The Brother’s Trust. It was wonderful to chat with them about the work they do, and the support they show to so many children’s charities across the UK.

A HUGE thank you to the charity for inviting us to join the event, and for creating such a special Christmas treat for so many children and young people.

EVENT CANCELLED: Lantern Walk 2024

This isn’t the news we wanted to be sharing this afternoon, but due to the ongoing Storm Darragh we’ve had to take the decision to cancel the Lantern Walk which was taking place tomorrow.

We haven’t taken this decision lightly, but everyone’s safety is very important to us. Even if the winds and rain subside tomorrow, the conditions on the roads are not great.

It’s our intention to get the event rescheduled, so we’ll be in touch with all families who were hoping to attend tomorrow as soon as we have updates.

Lantern Walk Preparation at Codemasters, Southam

On Tuesday, some of the Guy’s Gift team headed over to Codemasters in Southam to prepare for the Lantern Walk happening this Sunday. We had lots of fun turning into Guy’s Gift elves and getting everything ready for the creative activity and lantern-lit walk.

We were also lucky enough to be joined by a wonderful team of volunteers from Electronic Arts (EA). They made easy work of putting together a bunch of EA-themed goody bags for the children and young people coming to the event.

Special thanks to everyone involved for making this event possible. Even Buddy Bear got into the festive spirit.

We are looking forward to welcoming our families on Sunday!

Primary School Open Evening - November 2024

On the 12th November, two of our wonderful volunteers attended a Nuneaton primary school open evening to represent Guy’s Gift.

Jane and Liz (pictured below) were able to explain the services we offer to the families of potential new pupils, to give them the information and advice around the important work we do.

Both Jane and Liz volunteer at our Bereavement Support Groups, so they know first-hand how pupils can benefit from meeting other children in a similar circumstance and the enjoyment that comes from our therapeutic activities.

Jane Lewis (left) and Liz Shorney (right) - Guy’s Gift Volunteers.

Jane and Liz were also able to have meaningful conversations with the school staff members, who may indeed make referrals to us in the future.

We hope Queens C of E Academy benefitted from having the information there for families and staff to learn from, to have a read of our selection of bereavement-focused books, and of course, to meet some of our Buddy Bears.

Thank you for having us!

Guy’s Gift stand (includes information, books and activities).

Children’s Grief Awareness Week 2024

Today marks the beginning of Children’s Grief Awareness Week 2024. This year’s theme is #BuildingHope, which we recognise is incredibly important when working with bereaved children and young people. 

One of our therapeutic activities we wanted to share today is the Tree of Life. This allows children and young people to reflect on their experiences and self-growth, whilst helping them to build hope and strategies for now and into their future.  

We recently used this activity at our Nuneaton Bereavement Support Groups with our teenagers. They thoroughly enjoyed this session, and beautiful conversations and tree collages were formed.

Hope is being able to see the light, despite all the darkness.” – Desmond Tutu  

Tree of Life – therapeutic activity used at Guy’s Gift 

At Guy’s Gift, we provide support and counselling for bereaved children, young people and their families. We offer a combination of groups, 1:1 sessions and support for professionals. We have recently shared some of our therapeutic activities at our most recently Professional Drop-in Session we run for professionals working with bereaved children and young people. We understand the importance of supporting others to feel confident to build hope for the child too. 

The team at Guy’s Gift would love to see your Tree of Life creations this week. Please send them to info@guysgift.co.uk (and state whether we have permission to share them anonymously on our social media).   

Lantern Walk - December 2024

The Guy’s Gift Lantern Walk is an important opportunity for our families to get together and remember a special person who has died at what can be a very important time of year.  

This December, we are inviting families to come together for an indoor creative activity, followed by a lantern-lit walk to a place where we can gather and remember the person who has died. 

We are looking forward to welcoming you all to our event where lots of special memories will be made and fun will be had. P.S. remember to bring your wellies and wrap up warm!

For further information about our event, or if you have not seen an invitation come through, please get in touch using the button below:

Feedback from family who attended our 2023 Lantern Event.

This is an annual event which has helped bereaved families for over 15 years. We would be incredibly grateful if you would like to kindly donate to Guy’s Gift to help us to fund this event.

Here is our Just Giving page: