It means that everyone in the UK should now be able to tell their registrar ‘just once’ about a death (or birth) and have all other local government agencies informed, from the HMRC to the Passport Office, DVLA and so on.

WAY has worked with the DWP to help get this initiative up and running and they recognise our support.

Not only should this make life slightly easier for people who follow in our footsteps, but it has been another opportunity to get the word out about WAY and help raise our profile.

Let’s hope the system actually works!

She tried to include a point about Widowed Parents Allowance, now under scrutiny as part of the government’s welfare system review.

You can hear the interview here.

Upload your own photo and create an original case that’s great quality and good fun – perfect for Christmas presents!

But not only are we helping solve your shopping dilemmas, you can help WAY by buying one…

When you’ve designed your case, enter WAYFOUNDATION as a promotion code at the checkout and Like My Case will give you a 10% discount, as well as donate £2.50 to WAY for every order!

Go to www.likemycase.com to take a look.

Big thanks go to Sharon Whitehead-Nawaz who entered a competition to write a photo caption and won it, getting a free phone case. Like My Case noticed Sharon’s WAY link in her email signature and asked more about it – then decided to offer a discount to anyone quoting WAYFOUNDATION in their order.

The Bereaved Partners Support Group meets once a month at the Vale Community Centre in North-West London near Kilburn Park Station.

You can find out more about the group here.

Caroline completed the course in a really impressive 4 hours 15 minutes and this photo shows how thrilled she was to receive her medal at the end of her run.

As well as all the effort she put into training for the big day, Caroline has also raised over £1,600 for WAY which is a truly impressive effort.

So a really big thank you to her for all her hard work. If you’d like to support her then you can still donate at www.justgiving.com/caroline-waterhouse

But in March this year she qualified as a level two ski instructor in Canada and hopes to return later this year to teach for the winter season.

Congratulations from everyone at WAY to Jacqui for a truly remarkable achievement. This is her story:

“My first introduction to skiing was in December 2008 in Tignes, in France. It was always something I had wanted to try for a number of years but Paul was a sun baby and the thought of saving all year to go somewhere cold was just not going to happen… bless him!!!

When he died I knew I had get away but I also knew I wouldn’t be able to go on holiday by myself, so a year later I booked up to go on my first ever skiing holiday with WAY. I was very excited to begin with, but as it got closer I became very apprehensive, to the point where on the day I was due to fly out I got up, turned to my sister and said I didn’t want to go because I’d made a big mistake… How wrong was I – my sister gave me a talking to and off I went.

From the moment I got there and donned the skis, I was smitten. It was such an amazing experience and I don’t think I stopped smiling for the entire holiday. It was such an adrenalin rush and to make things even better I made lots of good friends. What I didn’t realise at the time was this encounter with skiing would eventually change my life in a way I could never have imagined!

Before I knew it, the holiday was over and once back, I was chomping at the bit to go again. So as soon as we came back from Tignes I knew I had to organise the next WAY ski holiday, in part to ensure that I went skiing again, but also I wanted to give other members the same opportunity to experience the thrill and excitement of skiing down a mountain in a beautiful part of the world that I had.

So I booked 33 of us in to go to La Plagne in 2009 and then the following year 42 of us went to Alpe D’Huez for New Year. What a laugh we had, and the kids had a ball with no worries about anyone asking those uncomfortable questions. Like the adults they too came away with some good friends.

Once back from Alpe D’Huez last year I decided I couldn’t wait until December to ski again and so I booked another skiing holiday with another WAY member to Zell Am See in Austria. This had a profound effect on me and I knew that skiing was something I wanted to do on a more professional level, so once I got back I went straight onto the internet.

I googled ‘ski jobs’ and up came up all these different holiday companies, so I started to apply for jobs abroad doing anything just to get me out there into the mountains. I got a couple of responses from my CVs and had some interviews, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be and I got turned down… But this was yet another turning point for me…

Again I hit the internet, but this time I googled ski instructors and it came up with some courses. After spending lots of time looking through them and contacting different companies I decided to contact the CRA – the Canadian Rockies Academy. Canada has always been somewhere I’ve wanted to go, so the decision to go with the CRA was a relatively easy one to make. I booked the course and was due to leave on 12 January 2011 – now there was no turning back.

I was so nervous about going because I’d been told I was the eldest female on the course, my fitness levels were non-existent and I had all the same feelings again that I’d had before I first went to Tignes…

It was such hard-going and having only skiied four times previously I was placed in the bottom group after our assessment and there I would stay for the duration of the course. This turned out to be in my favour (although I didn’t realise it at the time) as there were only four of us in our group, whereas the other groups had 8-10, so when it came to the instruction it was more like having a private lesson for us.

The higher groups sat their Level 1 exams in weeks 3 and 4 but we were held back until week 7 so we had a better chance of passing (which we all did). But this left us little to no time to train for Level 2.

Level 2 instruction was so much harder, more technical and our skiing had to be improved by 100%. I was told I probably wouldn’t pass the skiing section and then the cherry on the cake was when I had an accident with a tree! I hurt both my legs and was told they may be broken… but thankfully they weren’t.

I managed to pass my Level 2 in the final week of the course, despite being told by the assessors twice that I was below standard – what a kick in the teeth that was… But I pulled it out of the bag, worked harder than I’ve ever done before and passed my Level 2.

I can hardly believe it – and nor can anyone else!

It’s been one of the best but equally one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.

I’ve been battered, concussed, brought down off the mountain by the ski patrol in the “blood bucket”, came off second best when I had a fight with a tree and the bruises are just amazing…. I didn’t realise my skin could turn so many different colours.

My stress levels have been on an all-time high, I’ve cried, missed my family and friends dearly, snapped at my instructor for making me go down runs I didn’t want to do (they were soooo steep)… but despite all of this I’ve come out the other side as a stronger person and more importantly as a Level 2 Ski Instructor… yippee!

My next goal is to find a job as an instructor for the next winter season, teaching in Canada with any luck, so watch this space and let’s see what the future holds…”

Jacqui x

I organised the WAY ski trip to Tignes that Jacqui joined and I remember getting a phone call when she rang to say she was nervous and wasn’t sure she would come. When we got to Tignes she had a brutal French ski instructor, and two of the WAY children in her group had stopped attending lessons by the fourth day because they were finding him so tough. Not Jacqui, she never gave up, and had even jumped off a clifftop on a paraglide and landed on skis by the end of the week!

Her inspiring story is an amazing example of what you can do if you really put your mind to something and have the courage to follow a dream, however impossible it may seem at first. Congratulations Jacqui,

Caroline x

She went on to become a certified Grief Recovery specialist and you can find out more at her website www.grief-recovery.co.uk.

After our meeting Carole spoke with Russell Friedman who co-wrote the Grief Recovery Handbook – the book on which the programme is based – and they have decided to offer two subsidised places on the next training course to WAY members. It runs from April 8-11th in Bedfordshire.

The course is four days long – the first three take you through the Grief Recovery Programme yourself, and the fourth trains you in how to lead other people through the programme. If you get the certification at the end of the four days you can go on and offer Grief Recovery to others in your own area.

The programme has just been accredited by the BACP as Continuing Professional Development for counsellors and psychotherapists.

Carole is offering a discount of more than 50% off the cost of the course for two people. Once those places are full, there is a discount on offer of £200 off the price of the course for other WAY members.

Carole is looking for people who actively want to help others recover from loss to take part in this programme.

If you are interested, please  call Carole on 01234 862218 or email her at carole@grief-recovery.co.uk.

WAY does not officially endorse the Grief Recovery programme, but we would be very interested to hear feedback from any WAY members who have followed it.

The raffle raised £744 for WAY funds, so a big thank you to everyone who bought a ticket – and congratulations to Maria!

Thanks also to Argos who contributed towards this fabulous prize.

The aim of the group is to provide a social setting to meet some of the needs of widowed parents in the years after their loss and to form a network to engage with some of the issues of bringing up children as parents on their own.

The group will meet every three months on a Saturday evening in SW19, nearest tube Southfields on the District Line. The next meeting is on April 2nd, from 8pm till 10pm.

It will be hosted by Sarah Peart and Linda Doherty and you can call Sarah for details on 07734 053 468 or email sarah@peart11.fsnet.co.uk.

Subsequent meetings for 2011 will be on July 2nd and October 1st.

Georgia replaces Caroline Doughty who stood down after her two-year term ended.

“This is a wonderful charity that has helped me so much in the last four and a half years and I am now honoured to be its Chairman,” said Georgia.

Debbie Knivett will become the new Treasurer and four other new trustees were elected, bringing the total number of the committee to 13. Its first meeting will be held on April 9.