Lottie Tomlinson sister of famous sister Louis discusses why grieving families need more support.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00And those messages show just how strong those connections are, no matter how much time passes.
00:08But for many people, living with loss can feel incredibly isolating.
00:12A leading charity is now warning that too many people are struggling alone.
00:16One person who knows that experience all too well is Lottie Tomlinson, sister of One Direction star Louis Tomlinson.
00:24Yes, so about eight years ago, I lost my mum to cancer and then two years later, I lost my sister.
00:31So obviously it was a lot of grief in a short space of time.
00:35And being young as well, it was it was really hard to deal with.
00:38And I didn't feel I had that support that, you know, probably would have made the grief process easier.
00:44So once I reached a more comfortable place with my grief and kind of got through it a little bit,
00:50I decided to try and, you know, work out why there wasn't that support or try and use my platform to help other people in that same position,
00:58you know, be able to seek support.
01:00And that's when I started working with Sue Ryder because they have so many amazing, you know, bereavement support systems
01:07and networks on there, you know, within their kind of charity.
01:11And I just think it's really important for people to be receiving more support when they're going through this,
01:16because, you know, everyone is going to go through it at some point and it needs to be more accessible.
01:24Tell us about the campaign with Sue Ryder to give people better access to bereavement support in the UK.
01:31So this campaign is really important because, you know, we're always trying to break that taboo on, you know, grief and talking about loss.
01:38And we're always trying to come up with different ways to kind of do that.
01:42And this is such a nice campaign because it's just giving people another kind of way to, you know, deal with their grief
01:49and also to teach people how to better support those that are, you know, going through grief.
01:54Because it is a really hard thing for people to know what to do and what to say.
01:59You know, even as someone that's been through grief a few times,
02:02I still find myself in those positions where you don't know what to say to someone
02:06and you don't want to, you know, hurt them more or bring things up always.
02:10So we're just trying to, you know, come up with ways that help people deal with that grief
02:15and, you know, not get into such a dark place with it,
02:19because I think it's so easy to slip into those dark places because, you know, the support isn't out there.
02:26And if someone's finding it hard to cope right now, what would you say to them?
02:29And Sue Ryder offers so many amazing, you know, bereavement support on their website.
02:35There's a big community of people that all are going through the same thing.
02:39And I think it's really nice of people to be able to relate to others
02:43because I think grief is just loneliness, isn't it?
02:45And for me, I always just wanted to find someone that, you know, that I could relate to.
02:51And yeah, 88% of people feel alone in their grief, which is such a shocking statistic,
02:56which is why I work with Sue Ryder so closely as an ambassador,
03:01because I want people to know that there is that support out there
03:04and you only have to go on their website to, you know,
03:07see all the different avenues that they can go down.
03:09Great. Lottie, thank you so much for your time today
03:12and best of luck with this fantastic and important campaign.
03:16Thank you so much.
03:17And if you are struggling with grief or if today's conversation has brought up difficult feelings,
03:23there is help available.
03:24You can find support and advice at suerider.org.