Passing on the baton 1 - Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide

As many readers, members and supporters will know, Suicide Bereavement Support (SBS) for Cumbria and surrounding areas is due to close at the end of June 2024*. This is the first of a few blog posts about the organisations that will be carrying on, inheriting our baton, continuing to provide peer support in Cumbria (and beyond) and offering other services to those who are looking for support.

Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (or SoBS) is the only UK-wide organisation offering peer-to-peer support to all those over the age of 18 who are impacted by suicide loss.

SBS actually started out, in 2010, as the Cumbrian branch of SoBS but we opted for independence in 2019, allowing us to run in a way most appropriate to our community, and to give us the flexibility to adapt our support during the Covid pandemic. Since then, we’ve continued to keep in touch with SoBS and to promote its groups and activities in our newsletter and social channels.

“The history of SBS and SoBS means that we really do share a lot of common priorities and approaches,” says SBS Chair, Emily Griffiths. “For instance, we’re both volunteer-led organisations, supported by the necessary paid expertise. As we wind down and the Trustees decide where best to transfer any remaining assets after June, SoBS is one obvious choice, especially as they’re in the process of setting up a peer support group in Penrith and already have a group running in Dumfries, accessible to many of our members and somewhere we have had very active fundraisers in the past too.”

New website header for sobs with telephone line

SoBS also have virtual groups, meeting online over Zoom and open to people from across the UK. These meet on a variety of days, some of them during the day and others in the evening. There are also two specialist groups, both online and both open to people from across the UK, one for men only (called bereaveMENt) and one of Punjabi-speaking women.

These are all open to people in Cumbria and the surrounding areas, including those based in Dumfries, Richmond and Preston and, as mentioned above, there will soon be a face-to-face group closer to home too.

Community and Forum page header from new SoBS website

Phill Abbiss is the NW volunteer co-ordinator for SoBS: “The plan is for the new Penrith group to run on a regular week night each month from 8pm to 9pm. At present, this may start in April or it might have to be May - we’ll be promoting the time and date as soon as it’s confirmed with the venue. In the meantime, people can contact the group on penrith@uksobs.org and then they will also be able to find out more details of how to get involved and will receive details of the exact location too.”

The charity also offers a national telephone support line, an online forum and email support as well as providing links to resources and information for professionals working with those bereaved by suicide. On top of this, SoBS is involved in campaigning as part of the National Suicide Prevention Alliance and the Zero Suicide Alliance.

Header image for other Support page on new sobs website

“We at SBS have always been a small team,” says Emily, “and it is now time for us to move on. As Trustees, we are very aware that our first priority has to be the wellbeing of our own volunteers, especially as we have all been bereaved by suicide ourselves. We hope that, as SoBS activity in and around Cumbria grows, the people who have come to us for support in the past will make new contacts, access national resources and draw strength from growing local, SoBS-based networks in future.”

You can find out a lot more about SoBS on the charity’s website at https://uksobs.com/.

* Read more about our decision to close in the blog from last September at https://www.sbs.org.uk/blog/2023/9/4/announcement-of-charity-closure-planned-for-end-of-june-2024