THIS week your Worcester News is launching its £1 million Towards a Brighter Future appeal to buy the Noah's Ark Trust a new home.

The trust provides help and support for bereaved children across Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

Now with your help the trust is hoping to move into a building in the heart of the community and expand its services.

Here, in a series of articles, Claire Fry meets some of those who have benefited from the trust's services and finds out why it is so crucial for bereaved families.


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WHEN keen cricketer and devoted family man Phil Knight died just over three years ago, his wife and young daughter were left devastated.

His daughter, Jess, was just three days away from celebrating her 10th birthday and his wife, Lesley, had to learn to cope with grieving for her husband and looking after their daughter.

But it was with the support of bereavement charity Noah's Ark that Mrs Knight and Jess began to get through their darkest days, and they started to come to terms with their loss.

Mrs Knight, who lives in Blackpole, Worcester, said: "Jess and I were introduced to Noah's Ark shortly after Phil died in August 2004. His death from cancer left a huge gap in our lives.

It was the support Jess received from her family support worker on a fortnightly basis that began to help her come to terms with her loss, and this in turn helped me and our family."

The Noah's Ark Trust, based in Lowesmoor, Worcester - which is currently trying to raise £1m to purchase a property in the two counties - provides support to bereaved children, young people and their families.

For Jess, now 13, the charity provided the help and support she needed from trained bereavement co-ordinators as well as the chance to meet other children her age in a similar situation.

Mr Knight was just 39 when he died and was an experienced bowler, winning the award of the Worcester News cricketer of the week a year before.

Jess said: "A family support worker came to see me a few weeks after daddy died. Mum had heard of them through a friend and thought they would be able to help me to talk about everything that had happened, especially as I had been visiting dad in hospital at the QE in Birmingham every week for seven months."

For the family now, while they still have a big part of their lives missing, they are learning to cope with life without him.

"When this happens to you, initially you just have to live one day at a time. You can't bear to look forward because you don't know what the future will hold without your husband and child's father, but you soon realise that you must look ahead for the sake of the family unit, and Noah's Ark gives you the support you need to do this," said Mrs Knight, who now attends a monthly family workshop for Noah's Ark.

"I am a normal, working class mum who lost her husband and it was devastating to me. We have to live without him and we still miss him terribly," she added.

Jess is also following in her father's footsteps by playing club cricket during the summer season, and has also played for the county ladies under 13s team.

"I love playing cricket and I play in memory of my dad, he loved playing too, he was a very good bowler and often had his name in the Evening News from the Birmingham League games he played in," she said.

Noah's Ark is raising funds to purchase a house so that it can greatly-increase its profile and public awareness of the trust in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

It provides support to bereaved children, young people and their families, like Jess and Lesley, through residential weekends and awareness training.

To donate visit www.noahsarktrust.co.uk where you can make a contribution by credit card or PayPal.

Alternatively telephone the office on 01905 745735 or post a cheque made payable to Noah's Ark Trust, 1-4 Canalside, Lowesmoor Wharf, Worcester, WR1 2RS.