Celebrating Our Volunteers - Volunteer’s Week 2025

As we mark the beginning of Volunteer’s Week 2025, we want to take a moment to say a huge “thank you” to every single one of our incredible volunteers here at Guy’s Gift.

This years’ theme, #WeSeeYourPower, is all about recognition.

At Guy’s Gift aur volunteers are at the heart of everything we do – bringing compassion, time, and dedication to support bereaved children, young people, and their families across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Over the past year, your hard work has helped us achieve some truly meaningful milestones:

• Welcomed 12 new volunteers through our induction days, bringing our amazing team to 22 volunteers in total.

• Ran 10 sets of bereavement support groups - including in-school sessions, after-school sessions, and remote sessions - brining together children, young people and their families in similar circumstances.

• Sent out 45 bereavement resource packs to primary & secondary schools across Coventry and Warwickshire.

• Distributed 20 hospital support packs, offering immediate comfort and guidance to grieving families in the community.

• Delivered a children’s workshop in collaboration with “Gambling with Lives” workshop in July 2024.

• Reached new audiences at the Camper Calling festival in August 2024, raising awareness and support for our mission.

• Held our beautiful annual Lantern Walk in December 2024, uniting families in remembrance and community.

• Benefited from inspirational fundraising efforts – from the London Marathon 2025 and Birmingham Great Run 2025 to MuchLoved funeral donations.

Each of these moments is a testament to the dedication and passion of our volunteers.

Whether you're helping behind the scenes, helping to facilitate group/1:1 sessions, packing and delivering resources, or fundraising - your time and makes a lasting difference to your local community.

Our volunteers bring a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and skills, and it's this diversity that strengthens our work and deepens the connection we build with the families we support.

We are incredibly proud of what we've achieved together and excited for what’s ahead, with some new faces already joining our growing team.

If you or someone you know is interested in joining our volunteer community, we’d love to hear from you.

Please email volunteering@guysgift.co.uk or complete the application form via the button below…

From all of us at Guy’s Gift - thank you for everything you do. Here's to another year of hope, support, and togetherness.

#VolunteersWeek2025 #GuysGift #ThankYouVolunteers

Over 20 School’s Bereavement Resource Packs Delivered in May 2025

We are pleased to share that before May half term, our Bereavement Resource Packs were successfully delivered to over 20 primary and secondary schools across Coventry and Warwickshire.

These thoughtfully prepared packs are designed to support bereaved children and young people, helping school staff offer care and compassionate, during some of life’s most difficult moments.

What is a Bereavement Resource Pack?
The packs contain a selection of bereavement-focused books, activities, information and guidance sheets, and a Buddy Bear. We have separate packs for primary schools and secondary schools, to ensure the contents are age appropriate.

Who are they aimed at?
The books and activities are to share with children and young people who have been impacted by a bereavement and are struggling with their grief. The information sheets are to share with school staff and families.

A bit about the project:
We launched this project in 2020, with the aim to ensure every primary and secondary school across Coventry and Warwickshire receives a pack.

This project was made possible thanks to the incredible efforts of two key partners. A huge thank you to the fantastic volunteer team at Electronic Arts (EA), who generously gave their time to assemble and organise the delivery of the packs. Their hard work and dedication made all the difference.

We are also extremely grateful to Guiding Light for funding this important project. Their generous support has allowed us to provide these essential resources to schools across the region.

If you’re a member of school staff and would like to request a Bereavement Resource Pack for your school, please visit our website and head to the ‘Support for Professionals’ section for more information.

If you are interested in fundraising for us to continue this project, please head to our fundraising page for more information, or email fundraising@guysgift.co.uk. Together, you can help us to ensure that no child or young person faces grief alone.

Heroes in Running Shoes: Going the Extra Mile for Guy’s Gift

Incredible Support for Guy’s Gift from Marathon Runners and Fundraisers

At Guy’s Gift, we are incredibly grateful for the generosity, compassion, and dedication of our supporters. Recently, three inspirational individuals laced up their running shoes to quite literally, go the extra mile.

Have a read of how they took on major challenges in memory of their loved ones and to raise vital funds for the work we do with bereaved children, young people, and families across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Marc Blake Runs the London Marathon in Memory of his Loved Ones

On 27th April 2025, Marc Blake completed the London Marathon, raising nearly £3,000 in support of Guy’s Gift. Marc ran in memory of his mother-in-law, Hilary, who sadly and unexpectedly passed away earlier this year. His run was also a tribute to Chris "Hucky", a much-loved friend and father who died three years ago, leaving behind her family, including Marc’s goddaughter.

“The void this left, along with the distress & upset to the family, was heart-breaking to witness,” Marc shared. “This is my effort to repay some of the amazing support Guy’s Gift offered.”

Marc Blake,
London Marathon 2025 Finisher

Marc’s cousin, Zoe, whose family was supported by Guy’s Gift after Chris sadly died, shared her experience:

"As a family, we lost someone special and in the midst of this grief, we had children that were left without a father and none of us knew how to handle this or what to do for the best. This is where Guy's Gift came in, reassuring us that we were not alone. They provided literature, counselling and group therapy, not only for the children but also for me."

To support Marc and read his moving story, visit his JustGiving page.

Justin Wood and Chris Peat Take on the Great Birmingham Run in memory of Leanne Wood

Just a week later, on 4th May 2025, Justin Wood and Chris Peat completed the AJ Bell Great Birmingham Run, raising over £2,000 for Guy’s Gift in memory of Leanne Wood — Justin’s beloved wife and the mother of his two children.

Their run was not only a powerful tribute to Leanne’s memory, but also a testament to their commitment to helping other families experiencing the devastation of grief.

Justin Wood & Chris Peat,
AJ Bell Great Birmingham Run 2025 Finishers

Chris shared this heartfelt message after the event:

“Thanks for your donations! Charity response – £2,200 is a huge amount of money to raise, and we are all deeply grateful. This not only helps so much financially but is a big boost for the counselling team, knowing someone will push themselves to help, putting value on what they do. This is enough money to completely fund a 5-week group programme for 15 bereaved young people, so really is a huge achievement and great contribution to the work of Guy’s Gift.”

To read their story and contribute to their fundraiser, visit Chris and Justin’s JustGiving page.

A Heartfelt Thank You

To Marc, Justin, and Chris — your courage, determination, and generosity mean the world to us. Your efforts will directly support bereaved children and young people across Coventry and Warwickshire, offering them guidance, care, and hope in their most difficult times.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated to their campaigns. Your support helps keep our small local charity going — and allows us to continue providing one-to-one counselling, bereavement support groups, and guidance for schools, hospitals, and professionals working with grieving children.

Want to Fundraise for Guy’s Gift?

Feeling inspired? If you’d like to run, walk, cycle, host a quiz night — or get creative with your own fundraising idea — we’d love to hear from you! Every pound raised helps us reach more families in need.

📧 Get in touch at: fundraising@guysgift.co.uk

Together, we can ensure that no child faces grief alone.

Volunteer Induction Day - 11th April 2025

On Friday 11th April, we inducted 6 new volunteers to the Guy’s Gift team in Dunchurch, Rugby. Welcome aboard!

We explained the story behind Guy’s Gift and discussed our exciting volunteering opportunities.

We also ran an introduction to child bereavement training, which covered the ages and stages of grief, and how our therapeutic activities help bereaved children, young people and their families.

In the afternoon, we ran Safeguarding Training and how to apply this to their role as a volunteer with us.

It was great to see everyone getting involved and sharing thoughts and ideas to help keep the children and young people we are working with safe.

The sun even shone for us to have a picnic outside for lunch - thank you Spring!

It was lovely to see some new faces and hear their stories as to why they would like to volunteer their time to Guy’s Gift.

A warm welcome to everyone who attended, we look forward to having you as an important part of the team.

If you missed this opportunity, and are still interested in volunteering with us, you’re in luck! We are running a remote induction day on Wednesday 7th May (via MS Teams). Please email Sophie on volunteering@guysgift.co.uk to secure your place.

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.