When Deirdre’s 25 year marriage suddenly came to an end she was in complete shock. She always thought marriage was for life but one day her husband told her it was over. In this film, she explains how the Charity supported her through this difficult time.
Umme was helped by the Charity many years ago. Still learning how to cope with the grief of losing a child, she now feels ready to tell her story.
Umme started working for the Civil Service in 2005. As a young, driven woman, she worked hard to progress within the Department for Work and Pensions. In addition to having a successful career, Umme also wanted a family. She quickly fell pregnant with twins and celebrated with her husband. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be and she miscarried just a few weeks later. After picking herself up and trying to move forward, she fell pregnant again. This time, she gave birth to a baby girl and named her Hamidah. She was just 23 weeks into her pregnancy.
Although the doctors did everything they could to save Hamidah’s life, she tragically passed away just three days later. In the Muslim community, it’s tradition to bury deceased loved ones as soon as possible and therefore funeral plans had to be made quickly.
Umme’s work friends wanted to help and suggested she get in touch with the Charity. After a supportive conversation with our team, we found that we were able to provide financial support to the family during this difficult time. Umme and her husband finally had the space to rebuild the world around them after saying goodbye to their baby girl.
In more recent years, Umme and her husband have had a healthy baby boy who they describe as their “ease after great hardships.” With her strong family unit behind her, Umme is now ready to talk about what happened. By doing so, she is uniting serving and former civil servants and supporting grieving parents across the UK.
We all know that life has a habit of throwing us curve balls when we least expect it and every day, hundreds of ordinary people across the UK find themselves facing problems they didn’t anticipate or plan for.
For Andy, a former employee of the Ministry of Justice, that day was 13 February 2015, when he woke in the early hours with unexplained back pain and was then rushed to hospital.
It was months before he returned home, the day before his 44th birthday.
In this podcast, we talk to retired civil servant, Marian, about how we supported her at the end of 2020. Marian’s husband, Graham, was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of dementia just over two years ago.
Every year, we help thousands of people from across the Civil Service community. Here are some of their stories. Sharing stories helps other people to reach out for help. If you’d like to share your story please email us [email protected]
