Honiton Nub News spoke to Clare Horrex, the Community Fundraising and Engagement Manager for South West and Wales for Cruse Bereavement Support. 

Cruse Bereavement Support was one of the local causes supported by Honiton Co-op through the Co-op's Local Community Fund over the last 12 months. Other local causes supported by Honiton Co-op included Honiton Carers and Open Arms. 

The local causes chosen by Co-op members that will be supported by Honiton Co-op over the next 12 months are Honiton Carers, Honiton Foodsave and Honiton Town Youth Football Association.  

Clare said: "We are thrilled to have received £ 1797.41 from Co-op in Honiton – their support this year has been invaluable, not just from a fundraising point of view but also for raising awareness of Cruse Bereavement Support and what we do. This amazing amount will go towards recruiting, training and supporting new Bereavement Volunteers in the local community. These volunteers will enable us to continue to support grieving people in Devon." 

Could you tell me a little about Cruse Bereavement Support and what it does? 

Cruse Bereavement Support is the UK's leading bereavement charity. We support people at one of the most difficult times of their lives, when someone dies. We offer free of charge bereavement support and information to help people.  

Cruse has a local branch which supports people across Devon. All of our Bereavement Volunteers in the local area work in the community providing support over the telephone, Zoom or face to face. We are currently in the process of starting back with group support and we now offer a group session online called Understanding your Bereavement. 

I am the Community Fundraising and Engagement Manager for the South West for Cruse. My role is to boost the profile of Cruse and raise money to enable us to continue to run our service across the area. 

We provide our service free of charge, and we have seen a really big increase in requests for support since the pandemic. It's so important that everyone has the support they need, when they need it, and we want to make sure that no one ever feels alone or has no one to turn to. 

  Co-op in Honiton have been fantastic over the last year supporting Cruse with promotions in store, letting people know about our work and inviting us to come in and speak to customers about what we do. We are thrilled to have received £1,797.41 from the Co-op in Honiton – their support this year has been invaluable.  

The Co-op is amazing at engaging with the local community and bringing people together. It's really a hub for people and being involved with them has shown how well they work with everyone in the community. 

We have been able to tell more people, who we may not have reached before, about who we are and what we do. This enables us to support people locally and ensure they know where to go if they need support when they are struggling with grief. 

At the start of the year, Co-op and Cruse Bereavement Support joined forces to launch a new partnership aiming to empower people in their local communities to provide everyday bereavement support. 

Funded by Co-op members through the Co-op's Community Partnership Fund, the campaign launched with a suite of bite-size resources freely available for anyone to access at Co-op's online community centre Co-operate, www.coop.co.uk/griefsupport  

Co-op Membership helps support Co-op's national charity partners and Local Community Fund causes. When you buy selected Co-op products and services, 2p for every £1 you spend goes into your Co-op Membership account. Co-op will give the same amount to support community organisations and local causes. You can find out more and become a Co-op Member here.