My mum Rosalind was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 44 and I was 17. She went into remission and my family thought she was okay. Then the cancer came back and she died on my 19th birthday, when she was 46. My younger brothers were 9 and 12.

I am now 44, and am married with two sons. It’s been 25 years since my mum passed away and it has had an enormous effect on my life.

I have been on a journey since my mum died – particularly sinceI had my sons. When she died, I had just finished my first year of university and was not sure whether to continue. 

However, I returned for my second year, but I found it difficult being away from home.

After university I completed a PGCE and worked as a nursery teacher and in the nursery of a children’s centre and in the family support team there.

After my maternity leave with my youngest son, I did not return to work at the children’s centre. I became a postnatal doula, supporting families after the birth of their baby. I did this for approximately six years. I also volunteered on the PANDAS Foundation helpline, supporting women and families with pre and postnatal depression and anxiety.

I have worked with children and families for more than twenty years, as a teacher, then as doula, helping families after the birth of their baby. I found that women who didn’t have their own mothers around were drawn to me. It’s just being there, as a support, when they haven’t got that motherly figure in their life. More recently, I’ve trained to become a bereavement practitioner, and have supported children and young people when someone important to them dies and adults when a child of any age dies. I have learnt so much from the people I have supported in this role.

As I got older, I’ve felt the loss of my mum more in a way and found that I wanted to support people in the way that I didn’t have that support when I was younger.