You Raise Me Up

General information

the ‘You Raise Me Up’ charity based in Eastbourne; we are the only national charity who offers financial and emotional support to families who have sadly lost a child between the ages of 16 and 25.
We were founded in June 2011 with the sole purpose of raising funds to support these families.
Why did we form this charity?
On 3rd May 2011 our beautiful 17 year old daughter, Megan Brooks, suddenly collapsed and died at Eastbourne Rugby Club, just 9 days before her 18th birthday.
We, Megan’s parents and her brother Oliver, were traumatised and trying to pick up the pieces of our lives whilst stumbling through the aftershock, we felt we had little or no guidance or support other than from family and close friends.
Those first few days and weeks dealing with our loss and grief, whilst coping with the immediate demands of arranging a funeral were emotionally and financially challenging. How do you recover from the loss of a child, the pain and sorrow is incomprehensible. We knew after our experience how valuable and supportive it would have been had there been help available to us like our charity.
As a result, we founded the ‘You raise me up’ charity in June 2011 with the sole purpose of raising funds to support families who have suffered the loss of a child between the ages of 16 and 25.
We are sad that the need is there, yet encouraged and comforted to know that the charity has helped numerous families who have struggled not only with the funeral costs, but through the charity’s counselling service, we offer emotional support as they re-build their lives.
We offer help to local families and families further afield but without your generous support and donations this would not be possible. There simply is no other help of this kind available to bereaved families.