NO CHILD should be allowed to face the torment of losing a parent alone. At last, support is on its way for the hundreds of youngsters left bereaved in the region each year thanks to pioneering charity Wiltshire Treehouse.

The bereavement service launched last month in a bid to support young people and their families through grief and offer them a safe space in which to untangle and slowly deal with their pain and sense of loss.

“There is nothing else like it around here,” says trustee Helen Pepler, a bereavement counsellor and facilitator at the Great Western Hospital. “It has taken on an energy of its own and the fact that it’s been so well received and people have been so enthusiastic shows me that it’s really necessary.”

Around 111 children are bereaved of a parent every day in the UK. And one in 29 schoolchildren has lost a parent or a sibling - that's a child in every class.

While the organisation is for all intents and purpose new, its trustees have been offering counselling and practical help to youngsters across Swindon behind the scenes for nearly 15 years.

The road to what would become Treehouse started in 2001 when bereavement counsellor Helen Pepler and former colleague Hazel Furze became involved with the Siblings Group, a social club aimed at the siblings of young patients at the Great Western Hospital.

Sadly many young users lost a brother or sister along the way prompting the need for a dedicated bereavement group. In 2003, the pair formed the Rainbow Club, the first group of its kind not only in Swindon but the rest of Wiltshire.

To this day the club, which runs every six weeks, welcomes on average 22 children and teenagers grappling with the loss of a parent, sibling or close relative. Not technically a support group, its offers members the chance to get away, enjoy outdoors activities and craft workshops together free from the pressures and responsibilities of home and school.

The door is left open for them to share their difficulties or confide in their peers or the club’s volunteers, if they wish to.

“A lot of children think they are alone,” adds Helen. “But to actually find that there are other people of their age who have been bereaved is really helpful. Some don’t want to talk about their loss and they don’t have to. Just being there and knowing that everyone in the room has lost somebody special is enough.

“They just get together and socialise in a safe environment. They can come for as long as they need to, until they feel they don’t need us anymore.”

But supporting children alone, they came to realise was not enough – they would have to reach out to the entire family to further and sustain the healing process.

In 2012, with the help of charity Child Bereavement UK, Helen along with fellow bereavement counsellor Rebecca King set up the CHYPS, a four-week programme, designed to bring families closer together, encouraging them to communicate, share memories or voice their sorrow, feelings of despondency and anger in a judgment-free environment.

Faced with overwhelming demand from families across the county, Helen and Rebecca dreamt up Wiltshire Treehouse.

Thanks to an anonymous £35,000 donation, the trailblazing service, aimed at anyone under 25 and their families, opened its doors at the Salt Way Centre in Middleleaze on October 5.

As well as running the Rainbow Club which will soon officially come under the Wiltshire Treehouse umbrella and CHYPS, the charity is looking to work with schools and ensure solid measures are in place for bereaved students. Work is now underway to offer individual emotional support and counselling for families.

The charity also offers a helpline via Child Bereavement UK.

Oliver Poulter was just 10 when he joined the Rainbow Club following the death of his father in a car accident nearly eight years ago. Bringing himself to open up proved challenging at first.

“When it happens you shut down, you go into yourself,” explains the 17-year-old from Peatmoor. “I didn’t feel anything. At that age you feel really secure that everything is going to stay the same, that you’ll have your parents forever. There is a before and an after with a fuzzy patch in the middle.

“I liked the idea of talking to people at the Rainbow Club. But trying to let yourself do it takes time. The good thing was that there was no pressure to talk about anything if you didn’t want to.“ Jessica Candy, 13, started attending the group two years ago with her ten-year-old sister Lauren, soon after their mother died of a brain haemorrhage.

Reticent at first, her sense of isolation melted away as she got to know fellow members.

“You feel really alone when it happens,” she says. “When you hear about death on the news you don’t realise how bad it can be.

“You know there are other people like you out there but to actually meet them makes it easier. You can relax. I didn’t want to talk about things and I still don’t really now but I don’t feel alone.”

Life as they knew it came to a brutal halt for Charlotte and Kate Hunter when their mum died of breast cancer in 2004. Like many bereaved children they set out to shield their distraught father from their own grief.

“We had to grow up very fast,” confides Kate, 17, who joined the Rainbow Club with her 15-year-old sister in 2006. “You’re still a child but you lose a bit of your childhood. You feel more responsible for your other parent. On top of feeling grief for the parent you’ve lost you’ve got to help the other parent cope. You don’t want them to be sad or upset them.”

They also had to contend with friends’ incomprehension, gauche comments and at times unwanted attention after their mother’s passing.

“’I’m sorry’ is the worst thing you can say to someone who’s been bereaved,” adds Kate from Old Town. “It’s not your fault, why are you apologising? I think people do look at you differently. People don’t know how to act around you. They walk on eggshells, some people are a bit scared to talk to you and some people you’re not really friends with start coming up to you and want to talk about it.”

Helen agrees: “It’s like bees around a honey pot. Everybody is traumatised by it but it’s not their grief. Suddenly people are your friends, they just appear and then disappear again. It’s a shocking thing and some people gravitate towards it.”

Feeling understood and accepted without a word by the Rainbow Club was a tremendous relief for Kate.

“People know why you’re here,” she says. “You don’t have to say anything and it’s very comforting. They understand what you’re going through. If you’re here you’ve lost someone that’s a given.”

To keep up the good work and roll out services across Wiltshire the charity, which relies entirely on donations, will need to raise £300,000 each year. While fundraising gets underway, Helen, Rebecca and they team of 18 volunteers will initially focus on a limited area in Swindon and the vicinity before expanding their reach.

“We need Wiltshire Treehouse,” says Jessica, urging donors to back the fledgling charity. “There are a lot of people like me who need to know that they're not alone."

To find out more about Wiltshire Treehouse, donate or volunteer visit www.treehousewiltshire.org.uk or email admin@wiltshiretreehouse.org.uk. The Child Bereavement UK helpline is available on 0800 02 888 40.