“I was widowed at the age of 31 in September 2017 after my wife battled breast cancer for just over a year, leaving me raising our young daughter on my own. At first, I felt completely lost and hopeless with what felt like no way of gaining support or help. Luckily, after only a couple of weeks, I was told about WAY Widowed and Young through Macmillan Cancer Support.
Finding WAY totally changed my outlook on things. I went from feeling like I was odd/wrong/weird for the way I felt, to finding others who felt the same way as me. Through WAY, I found things that helped with keeping going. I attended my first WAY meet up event eight weeks after I was widowed – being able to feel like enjoying things again made a huge impact. From there I didn’t look back and I went on to start organising my own events eventually as a volunteer for WAY.
It has been a rough time since then, with several ups and downs. Being widowed and a fully solo parent is hard. Being a dad with a young daughter has so many things that most men don’t really expect to be dealing with – and taking that side on has been a challenge. On a few occasions there have been incidents with people being automatically judgmental towards me as well. I also went back to college when my daughter started school so I could get myself to a better place for our future.
I now work full time in architecture alongside being both mum and dad to my daughter. It’s hard but it is worth it and having the support and encouragement from the friends I have made in WAY has been a big part of that.
After organising events for the Glasgow area for a number of years, I eventually signed up as an official WAY volunteer and then, when the chance came round to become a Trustee, I was interested right away. I wanted to be part of giving back to the charity that has done a lot for me as well as hopefully providing help to others.”
If you've lost your partner before your 51st birthday and live in the UK – whether you were married or not, with or without children, whatever your sexual orientation, race or religion – you are welcome to join us.
Joining up to WAY takes minutes and costs just £30 a year, which can be paid either by direct debit or PayPal.