Just recently you’ve been put in touch with Compassionate Friends, did anybody mention them or any other support groups a long time ago?

Yes I … at the beginning I had the … I had the number for SOBS, Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide and the Compassionate Friends. I did nothing for a very, very, very long time. Well until about it, it … I mean it’ll be two years in November. And I should think I made contact with SOBS first, earlier this summer, maybe in the spring. But I rang and there’s absolutely no branch of a support group here in [this county of England]. In fact the person I spoke to didn’t know where [this county] was. I was actually just so appalled by it because it had taken a lot of courage to ring. And I’ve … I felt I was opening myself up by ringing and to get a response which was so … it wasn’t negative. It was idiotic. So that was the end of that. And I thought well I won’t approach anybody anymore.

And then suddenly a few weeks ago I felt I really needed to talk to someone or people in the same position as me because other people seemed to be “moving on”, not only my friends but my family. And I … my counsellor had pointed out to me actually she thought I was getting stuck … which I thought actually for eighteen months on was a bit odd really. Frankly I thought it was a bit harsh. But maybe she was trying a technique of moving me on.

So I rang the Compassionate Friends, and I must say they have been; I haven’t been to a meeting yet. But there is a group up here. And they were tremendously sympathetic and kind and immediately sent me literature and that did make me feel, yes I’m not alone.