Southend Hospital colleagues support hundreds with their award-winning bereavement group
The group meets in the evenings
What began as a simple coffee break between two colleagues has grown into an award-winning support group that is helping hundreds of people in Southend navigate life after loss.
The group, Evening Reflections, won the Team Award at the Southend Volunteer Awards.
Amanda Wilkinson and Lynsay Pratt both work at Southend Hospital, part of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.
Amanda lost her mum to endometrial cancer, her nephew to suicide, and another nephew to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Lynsay lost her brother to bowel cancer, her mum to complications from COPD, and her dad to a cardiac arrest secondary to cancer. Their shared grief quickly turned into friendship, and then into purpose.
They said that grief often comes with isolation and loneliness, and that their support can be "greatly important" to helping someone come to terms with loss.
Lynsay said: "I've been at the hospital for around about 17 years. So I've kind of done a lot of different wards, different settings, and I think when you're in those settings, and you see other people's grief and you see like end of life car and stuff like that, it kind of really hits home how important that support is.
"I think there is quite a big stigma around grief. People think that, you know, if you're going through grief, you can't smile and you can't laugh and you can't have all them emotions.
"For Amanda and I, it was the case of trying to make people understand that it is okay. It is absolutely normal to want to have a laugh, and it's normal to want to sit there and smile sometimes, and it's normal to cry, and we just wanted to have all their emotions validated."
Amanda said: "There is no registration required.
"There will always be myself or Linsay on the door to welcome people.
"It is a relaxed place to come and chat, and just be in a room with people who know what it feels like to be going through grief."
Lynsay also said: "There's no expectation, so people come along and there's no expectation to have to talk about that grief."
Amanda told us that the group has been running for over a year, and that there are great friendships formed between people as a result of their efforts.
She also said that winning the award was a "really proud moment" and that their hard work had paid off.
"It's amazing seeing the transformation of people. We have quite a number of people that have walked in the door and had to walk out again because they found it very overwhelming.
"To where they are now, where they're connecting with these other people, making all these new friendships."