My Page 1 Woman of the week is Susanne Currid, amazing Managing Director of The Loop Digital Communications Ltd and social media whiz kid. Susanne helps small business owners to use webinars, social media and digital marketing effectively.

Despite the demands of her business, Susanne has taken time out over the last 10 years, to volunteer with Winston’s Wish, a childhood bereavement charity that provides a service to bereaved children aged 5 to 17 and their families. She attends the charity’s residential weekends and helps to support and lead the children through a series of therapeutic exercises interspersed with games and activities to keep things from getting too serious. Having lost her mom, when a teenager, Susanne is able to relate to bereaved children whilst honouring the memory of her mom.

As Susanne says, ‘the work can be emotional, but also immensely rewarding. They’re bereaved, but they’re still normal kids. Even when it gets difficult, the residential weekends create a very positive experience for these children by, for example enabling them to open up conversations with their parents and share their experiences with each other. They learn positive ways of remembering their parent and dealing with difficult emotions and situations such as remembering a birthday, weddings and the first day at a new school.

‘I’m so impressed with the work of Winston’s Wish. As well as working with families affected by bereavement through illness or accident, they now run ground-breaking programmes for children who have experienced personal loss through murder, manslaughter, suicide or active service in the UK military.

So let’s celebrate the much needed work of Winston’s Wish and well done Susanne for your courage, compassion and commitment in using your own experience to contribute to the emotional healing of vulnerable children.

For more about Winston’s Wish, visit: www.winstonswish.org.uk  Click here  if you’d like to support Winston’s Wish.