North Star

No child should face the death of a parent alone.

North Star brings together children aged 4–16 who have lost a mum or dad, and the parents and carers raising them, so families can find people who truly understand.

Register your interest Read our story
Paper stars on a deep blue background, with one golden star shining above them
Children sitting in a circle building with yellow and blue blocks

What is North Star?

A community for children who have lost a parent, bringing them together with other children who understand because they have been through it too.

Losing a parent can make a child feel different from their friends and, at times, incredibly alone. At North Star they meet other children living with the same reality, children who don’t need an explanation to understand.

It’s somewhere to play, create, relax, laugh, make friends and simply be themselves, with one-to-one support for those who want it, and practical information, guidance and signposting when further support is needed.

Parents and carers have a space too: somewhere to meet others who understand what they are going through, share experiences and feel seen.

We are not here to fix grief.

We are here to make sure nobody has to face it alone.

Why North Star is needed

Losing a parent in childhood is far more common than most people realise, yet many bereaved children grow up feeling they are the only one.

  • 20 mins

    On average, a parent of dependent children dies in the UK every 20 minutes, around 26,900 parents each year.1

  • 127

    Children are newly bereaved of a parent every day, around 46,300 children aged 0–17 each year.1

  • 1 in 20

    Young people will have lost one or both parents by the age of 16.1

  • 1 in 29

    School-age children have lost a parent or sibling: roughly one in every classroom, around 339,000 children across the UK.1

The impact on children

  • Around 1 in 3 bereaved children reach clinical levels of emotional or behavioural difficulty in the two years after a parent dies.2
  • Losing a parent can lead to mental and physical health problems and lower attainment at school.3
  • Bereaved pupils often feel different from their classmates and alone with their grief.4
  • In a 2026 study, parentally bereaved children aged 10–18 described feeling alone in the world.5
  • Children in disadvantaged areas are more likely to be bereaved, because death rates vary by social class and place.1
  • With the right support, most bereaved children do not suffer long-term harm, which is why connection and community matter so much.3

Gaps in support

  • Support for bereaved pupils in UK schools is patchy, and many teachers say they lack the skills to help.3
  • Specialist bereavement provision exists in an estimated 70–80% of local authority areas, but it can be far from home and may have a waiting list.2
  • No official data is collected on how many children are bereaved each year, so many go unnoticed.1
2,389

Children under 16 in neighbouring Tameside alone are estimated to have lost a parent, just under 5% of the borough’s under-16s.6

Because no official record is kept, these figures are estimates, based mainly on Office for National Statistics death records and census data compiled by the Childhood Bereavement Network.

Sources
  1. Childhood Bereavement Network: Key statistics (updated March 2025), including Parsons (2011) and Fauth, Thompson & Penny (2009).
  2. Childhood Bereavement Network: written evidence to the UK Parliament (CMH0151)
  3. University of Cambridge for Winston’s Wish: Consequences of childhood bereavement in the context of the British school system (2019)
  4. Cruse Bereavement Support: research review on bereaved children at school
  5. “You feel alone in the world”: support experiences of parentally bereaved children, Death Studies (2026)
  6. Tameside Safeguarding Children Partnership: Bereavement, supporting children through grief

Who is North Star for?

When a parent dies, the whole family is affected. North Star is there for all of them.

Children and young people who have lost a parent

A safe and welcoming space to meet others who know what it feels like to have someone they love missing from their lives.

Parents and carers

Somewhere to meet others who understand, share experiences, build friendships and find support while helping your children through their grief.

Ages 4 to 16

Groups for different stages of childhood and adolescence, with age-appropriate activities and the chance to connect with others experiencing a similar loss.

What North Star will offer

Groups, activities, experiences and practical support that make the journey through parental bereavement a little less lonely.

  • A place to belong

    A welcoming space where children meet others who have lost a parent and know they are not the only one.

  • Connection and friendship

    Chances to meet, play and build friendships with others who understand.

  • A safe space

    Somewhere to be yourself without judgement, expectations or pressure to talk.

  • Creativity and activities

    Play, crafts, games and the chance to simply have fun and be a child.

  • One-to-one support

    Dedicated time for children who would like to talk about their experiences.

  • Support for parents and carers

    A space to meet, share experiences and feel understood too.

  • Advice and signposting

    Practical guidance towards other organisations and services when extra support is needed.

  • Days out and experiences

    Creating positive memories together. No child should miss out on new experiences.

  • Information and resources

    Age-appropriate information and support packs for children, parents and carers.

We are here to connect, not correct.

There are many wonderful organisations supporting children and families through bereavement, each offering something valuable and different. North Star has been created to meet one particular need: bringing together children who have experienced the death of a parent.

Sometimes what a bereaved child needs most isn’t another person trying to explain, change or fix how they feel. Sometimes they simply need to know:

“I’m not the only one.”

Blue paper butterflies following a dotted path up to one golden butterfly

What North Star isn’t

We aren’t a traditional talking group

Children won’t be expected to sit in a circle and talk about their feelings or share their experiences. Talking is there if they want it, but it is never an expectation.

We aren’t a formal counselling service

North Star isn’t designed to replace counselling or specialist therapeutic support. Our focus is on connection, belonging, activities and a safe environment where children can be themselves. Where appropriate we can provide one-to-one support and signpost families towards specialist services.

We aren’t a community youth centre

Children will play, have fun, be creative and take part in activities, but North Star has a specific purpose. Every child who comes through our doors has something significant in common: they have lost a parent.

We aren’t focused on how the parent died

North Star isn’t divided into groups based on the circumstances of a death. Whether a parent died suddenly, through illness, by suicide, through an accident or any other circumstance, the common experience is the loss of a parent.

We aren’t here to fix grief

We don’t believe grief is something that can simply be fixed, or something a child needs to “get over”. The loss of a parent changes a child’s world. Our role is to acknowledge that, make space for it and support children as they find their way through life after loss.

It’s about making sure nobody has to navigate it alone.

Dale with his wife and their three children at a football ground

From our family, to yours

North Star came from something I never imagined I would have to understand.

On 12th January 2026, I lost my husband, Dale, and our three children lost their dad. Our whole world changed that day.

Since then, I’ve had to learn how to navigate my own grief while helping our children navigate theirs. There isn’t a guidebook for that. You are suddenly trying to answer questions you never expected your children to ask, while trying to make sense of a life you never expected to be living.

Through our own experience, I started to think about all the other children who find themselves in this position. I realised that what I wanted most for our children wasn’t someone to try to fix their grief. I wanted them to know they weren’t alone.

I wanted somewhere they could meet other children who understood without needing everything explained. Somewhere they could talk if they wanted to, but could also just play, laugh, create and be children.

And I wanted somewhere for me too: a place where I could sit alongside other parents who understood what it is like to grieve the person you love while trying to hold your children together.

That’s where North Star began.

It is deeply personal to me, because it has come directly from our experience of losing Dale. But it is not about our family alone. It is about every child who loses a mum or dad and suddenly has to live a life they never expected.

Dale cared deeply about children, young people and community. He believed in giving young people opportunities, creating a sense of belonging and helping them to see what they were capable of.

I can’t change what happened to Dale. I can’t give our children their dad back. But I can try to take something positive from the worst thing that has ever happened to our family.

I want North Star to be the place I wished existed for us.

A place where children don’t have to explain.

A place where parents don’t have to pretend they’re okay.

A place where nobody is expected to “move on”.

A place where families can find people who understand.

Finding our way together

Losing a parent changes a child’s world. It is something they carry with them as they grow, through birthdays, school milestones, friendships, celebrations and all the ordinary moments that suddenly feel very different.

We cannot change what has happened.

We cannot take away their grief.

But we can make sure they don’t have to navigate it alone.

North Star will give children and their families a place to come exactly as they are; a place where their loss is acknowledged, their feelings are welcome and there is no expectation to have everything figured out. After losing a parent, a child should not have to lose opportunities, connection, confidence or their sense of belonging too.

They deserve support. They deserve connection. They deserve to still have a childhood.

That is North Star.
Finding our way together.

Get in touch

North Star is just beginning. If your family has been affected by the death of a parent, or you’d like to help us grow, leave your details and we’ll be in touch.

You don’t need to have the right words. A name and a way to reach you is enough.

Three young children smiling and hugging

We only use your details to reply to you about North Star. We never share them.

Dale Harris smiling, sitting on a rock on a pebble beach
In loving memory of Dale Harris An amazing husband and daddy,
whose love continues to guide us. 1994 – 2026