Winston's Wish 'Wear Wellies' campaign to support bereaved children

People are being asked to donate £2 to wear their wellies in school or in the workplace

People are being encouraged to pull on their wellies and help raise funds to support young people experiencing bereavement.

Gloucestershire charity Winston's Wish is asking participants to donate £2 to 'Wear Wellies' in school or at work.

The fundraiser is inspired by 'puddle jumping' - a term used to describe how children often jump in and out of grief following bereavement.

Wear Wellies is running throughout March.

Director of fundraising at Winston's Wish, Paul Moore, said: "We know every 20 minutes a child in the UK becomes bereaved of a parent and often what they experience is this expression of confused grief.

"They can go from being sad or angry, to actually just wanting to talk about what is for dinner or what they have done at school that day, and that can be confusing for them and the adults that support them.

"Puddle jumping allows children to express all of their range of emotions and not being afraid of that."

Paul Moore said the campaign is important to fund work supporting grieving children

Winston's Wish, the UK's first childhood bereavement charity, was founded in 1992 to support children in Gloucestershire.

Last year, it supported 62,484 right across the UK.

He said the 'Wear Wellies' campaign is important to fund more work supporting grieving children in the UK but also to build understanding.

"We often talk about those children as the forgotten mourners and days like Wear Wellies helps us remind the public that actually these children do exist and they are important and should be be factored into all our plans and considerations," he said.

He said that the event can also help children be more aware of other children in their classroom who may have experienced loss and normalises the conversation around grief and bereavement.

Free fundraising packs are available online with Winston's Wish.