REACHING OUT IN MEGAN’S NAME
NEW BRANCH OF CHARITY TO HELP BEREAVED
A charity launched in the name of a teenager who died at a music festival is looking to raise funds to help other families hit by tragedy.
Megan’s Rainbow Support Group has been set up by Megan Bell’s grandmother Jenny and other family members to help families access bereavement counselling closer to home.
The former St Anthony’s Catholic Girls’ Academy student was at T in the Park festival, in Scotland, in July when she died.
Now, the charity will also run a fund to help families cover the cost of children’s funerals and other expenses.
It comes after the family of 17-year-old Megan, from Seaham, were determined to thank the efforts of those in the local community who rallied round to help when they were faced with their sudden loss.
Megan had been due to become an apprentice hairdresser as she worked towards fulfilling her dream of running her own business.
The fund to help families faced with a sudden loss is being supported by family friends Laura Ward and Gillian Graham, who rallied round to support the Bell family by staging a balloon launch and candlelit vigil, fundraising night and a family fun day in Megan’s memory.
An entertainment night on Saturday, April 1, at Dawdon Welfare Club will be followed by a day of live music, Music for Megan, on the Terrace Green on Saturday, June10.
Laura said: “There will be help for bereavement counselling, but families also have to look at funeral costs, because we feel there needs to be this help. If people who have lost children come to us, we will look at how we can help them.
“We will have these two events to raise funds to start up the fund.”
Megan’s dad Chris, 44, a car transporter driver, who along with Lisa, 41, is also dad to Jenny, eight, Maddy, 10, and brother Josh, 12.
He said: “The aim is to help people like they helped us – and if Megan was here, that’s what she would do.
“It’s also to thank the people of Seaham and the surrounding areas, because the support we got from them was unbelievable.
“We found ourselves in a situation we never thought we would, so if we can help people to deal with the unexpected, we will.
“It will work as two branches, because there isn’t the bereavement counselling needed in East Durham, and then it will help with funeral costs, or a headstone, if that’s what they need.
“We’re part of a big community and everybody, family and friends, got together money, but there’s no help there from the Government, or very little, and this is trying to help.”