Thank you for listening

Thank you again to everyone who has read, shared and commented on the blog post I wrote detailing my complaint to Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital about the way both Neil and me were treated days before he died.

I've had phenomenal support since penning this intensely personal story and last week appeared on the BBC News Channel, BBC One O' Clock News, ITV lunchtime and evening, and Sky News, who have kindly provided me with the above clip. I also spoke to BBC Radio Five Live and my audio was shared with various regional BBC radio stations. The Independent wrote an in-depth article and leader column about care for the dying and I've done a very sensitive interview this week with the Wolverhampton Express & Star. I had to turn down approaches from other national news programmes as I just couldn't be in two places at once.

This was because my blog post was picked up after being shared on social media by Joe Levenson from Dying Matters during their 'you only die once' awareness week. A report from the Royal College of Physicians said too many people dying in hospital were not being cared for as well as they could be. This was my opportunity to be heard, and thanks to Joe, I grabbed it with both hands. You can see there's a lot of emotion as I speak, my face is red and I only have to be asked a single question before I launch into recounting our family's turmoil, hardly drawing breath.

As you can imagine, for someone who wrote a blog post wanting just to be listened to, I never suspected I'd end up speaking to millions through national media. It was a cathartic experience for which I'm immensely grateful. Each and every journalist in touch has been hugely respectful.

I have plenty more I want (or need) to say about being bereaved and when I don't have a big pile of work to do, I hope to be back blogging.

Thank you.

What not to say to a bereaved family

A couple of weeks back I wrote a piece for Parentdish on this very subject:

What not to say to a bereaved family.

It was something I really wanted to write about and it was quite a cathartic process. My friend Helen read the piece before I sent it and said that I sounded very angry.

I think that's a key aspect of grief that can be overlooked. People think you will be sad, despairing, heartbroken you name it, and of course you are, but rage can be equally overpowering.

Think about it. Perhaps like Lisa, whom I quoted in the article, you lose your husband 24 hours after learning he is ill, you are 35 years old and you have two young children.

Then someone tells you: "I know how you feel, my rabbit just died."

I think you'd be pretty angry too.

It's a puzzle to me as to why we don't talk about grief much. I'm grateful for all the kind words and concern people have shown me over the past year or so. I'm sorry I sound so angry.

But I'm getting there.

Thanks for reading.

Sec Ed feature on helping bereaved pupils

Thank you to everyone who replied and offered their insights about helping bereaved children at secondary school.

The resulting piece is published today and you can read it here.

I'm pleased to have been able to contribute this feature and hope that it can help raise awareness of how grief isn't a straightforward journey for teenagers.

Thanks for reading.

Telling our story in the Daily Express

A piece I wrote about me, Neil, our girls and our plans for our life without him appeared in the Daily Express yesterday:

We'll see the world in my husband's memory.

I wanted to see a story in print about how much we all love Neil and how we are determined to live our lives to the full.

I'm hugely touched by the incredibly positive and supportive reaction I've had since sharing our story. Thank you to everyone who has been in touch. People have shared their own stories of loss and told me they have been moved by ours.

The phone rang with people telling me how much they appreciated my feature, others emailed me and Facebook and Twitter was awash with people sharing the link and passing on their good wishes.

It was lovely for me to see this reaction, thank you.

I'm now also telling our story in a women's weekly magazine so I'm pleased about that too.

One thing the experience of working on this hugely personal story for a newspaper has helped underline for me is that I can be positive and look forward with love. This has made me more determined to carry on this blog as well and be positive when I can.

It also gave me a push to pick our travel site, Have a Lovely Time, back up. I haven't been able to bear to look at it.

I'm trying my best to think about what we have rather than what we don't. That's a lot. It's when I think what we have all lost that I'm inconsolable.

Thanks for reading.