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Joby's Story

Jun 2023

Joby writes how the recent change in the law to extend bereavement support to parents who weren’t married or in a civil partnership has impacted her…

Michelle's Story

May 2023

Although Bereavement Support Payment has been extended to cohabiting couples with children, unmarried couples without children are still being denied support. WAY member Michelle shares their story…

Extending Bereavement Support Payments: Lauren’s story

Mar 2023

When Lauren’s husband Rob died last June, she started to receive the first of 18 monthly instalments of Bereavement Support Payment to help support herself and her daughter, Amelia. Although she was g…

Siobhan's Story: Cohabiting Couples Campaign

Feb 2023

When Siobhan discovered through conversations with Citizen’s Advice that parents who were not married or in a civil partnership were unable to claim the support available at that time to married paren…

Kathy's Story: Cohabiting Couples Campaign

Feb 2023

WAY Ambassador Kathy Ford lost her partner Keith in November 2018 to a sudden heart attack. They had been together for 19 years and had two sons together. In June 2019, Kathy gave evidence to the Work…

Elanor shares her story to support our Cohabiting Couples Campaign

Feb 2023

Elanor’s partner Robin died in 2005 after a motorbike accident. She was pregnant with their only daughter Sophie when Robin died and has struggled for the past 17 years to bring up Sophie as a lone pa…

Celebrating campaign success: Georgia's Story

Feb 2023

Georgia Elms was widowed in 2006 when her husband Jon died suddenly from meningitis aged just 38 – the next day she discovered she was pregnant with the couple’s second child.

Celebrating campaign success: Pete's Story

Jan 2023

WAY member Pete Bailey has been campaigning to extend bereavement support to cohabiting couples since his partner died in 2010, when the couple’s youngest son was just six weeks old. Their boys are no…

Celebrating campaign success: Laura's Story

Jan 2023

York-based WAY member Laura has been campaigning to extend bereavement support to unmarried parents since her partner Nigel died of a heart attack in February 2020, leaving her to bring up their 2-yea…

WAY is the only national charity in the UK for people aged 50 or under when their partner died.

It’s a club that nobody wants to be eligible to join, but we are so glad that our members find us. We are a place for people who have experienced an untimely loss to understand and have compassion for those experiencing the same. Quite simply, to be able to say: “I know”.

Our service offers a peer-to-peer support group operating with a network of volunteers who have been bereaved at a young age themselves, so they understand exactly what other members are going through.