I am sure that most of you will be aware that one of our Patrons Dame Esther Rantzen is living with stage 4 lung cancer,of which she has been very open about.
It has been such a privilege to get to know Esther over the years and BGSG will be eternally grateful for the support she has always given us and it has made me think back to how the relationship with her first started.
In 2014 Esther invited Marc and I to go to London to meet her to discuss what we were doing and how she could help, it came about because I had written to her PA and told her about our Tree of Hope, and asked if Esther would be kind enough to write a message for the tree.
To be utter amazement she agreed and she did indeed send us a message.
The day before our meeting Esther rang us and said that the BBC The One Show were interested in doing a feature on the plight of grandchildren being denied contact with their grandparents and would we be happy in speaking to the producer of the show, which we said we would.
Other than knowing we were meeting the producer we didn’t know what to expect.
Esther immediately made us feel at ease and the conversation flowed. She had recently become a grandparent herself and it was clear that she had a very strong bond with her grandchild, we talked about Childline and The Silver Line, so we had common interests from the start. Not only did she hear from children about being apart from grandparents but also from grandparents who were facing this living bereavement.
We had our meeting with the producer and dates and times were arranged for Esther to come to Bristol to attend one of our support group meetings, it all happened very quickly.
One the day I had a call from her whilst she was on the train to ask if I knew of a local Family Lawyer who they could also interview, I didn’t but did a quick search on the internet came up with one who had a practice in central Bristol, that lawyer is now a very close and dear friend, and by total coincidence in fact at the time lived just up the road from me.
Esther showed utter care and compassion to everyone at our meeting and became very moved on more than one occasion listening intently to grandparents stories.
The turnaround to when the programme went out was very fast, which is quite unusual and I have to say the reaction that both Esther and myself received was quite overwhelming. Our Helpline didn’t stop ringing there were countless messages and emails.
The response was so large the One Show did another item a few weeks later.
Esther came to Bristol again and we sat in our garden going through the hundreds of letters and emails she had received.
Each and every one was read, to read these was heartbreaking, people sharing their most personal stories, just wanting to be heard.
The most difficult ones to read were the ones from children themselves, they had seen the programme and then taken themselves off to write to Esther, it was extremely moving.
There were many tears shed by us both.
I shall never forget it.
Once again after the programme aired more and more responses and calls happened.
Both Marc and I will always be eternally grateful to Esther, she introduced us to Nigel Huddleston MP at another visit to London who was instrumental in allowing us time for the debate in Westminster Hall.
Had it not been for that initial email I wrote to Esther regarding the Tree of Hope the One Show would probably not have happened, and having Esther as a Patron gave BGSG credibility and a platform to raise awareness of the public health issue of unjustified estrangement.
Many of the 8,000 plus grandparents who have contacted BGSG might not have known we are here for grandparents and grandchildren.
Thank you Esther.
