Bereaved children: We need to talk about death

Sir Al Aynsley-Green knows how it feels to lose a parent at a young age – and now he wants to help other bereaved children. By Amol Rajan

Not many people know that every half an hour a child in Britain loses a parent.

Fewer still know that the rate at which British children lose either a grandparent, close school friend, or mentor is higher still.

Our ignorance of these alarming figures is partly due to the fact that no official statistics exist for the number of young people experiencing the trauma of bereavement.

The above figures are simply the conservative estimates produced by an organisation known as the Childhood Bereavement Network.

And yet the severity of the problem is beyond dispute. Bereavement means "to leave desolate or alone, especially by death". It is distinguished from grief, which means any form of deep mental anguish, by its emphasis on the solitude of those who endure it. And to a much greater extent than adults, children struggle to cope with the toxic combination of sorrow and solitude.