Pain of woman who lost her baby and husband within 5 days

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Rhian Burke suffered an unimaginable double tragedy, when her husband took his own life following the death of their son.

A mum suffered an unimaginable double tragedy, losing her toddler son and husband within five days of each other.

Rhian Burke's one-year-old son George died in 2012 after suffering pneumonia, and within days her grieving husband Paul took his own life.

But despite such overwhelming loss, Rhian has managed to use her grief to help others by setting up bereavement charity 2 Wish Upon A Star.

Recalling the awful loss of her son, she told Wales Online her husband had been bathing her two other children as the family of five were getting ready for bed.

“George and I were chasing each other up and down the landing, like we always did,” said Rhian.

"As the evening went on we were downstairs watching television with George crawling around as usual and playing with his toys, when suddenly he collapsed on to the floor.”

Despite the best efforts of the medical team at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, George died after suffering a seizure at home.

It was later discovered that he was suffering Bronchial Pneumonia and Type A Influenza.

Following George’s death, Rhian and Paul said they were given very little support.

“We were sat holding George for a number of hours after, when we were told we had to leave,” continued Rhian.

“We were given a booklet, escorted back down to A&E and then out in to the night.

“Our whole world had been turned on its head and we were just left.

“We had so many questions: How did this happen? Why did this happen? Was there anything we could have done? Was this our fault?”

Despite the support of friends and family the couple were unable to come to terms with what had happened.

“Friends came and tried to help, but of course it’s not something anyone can understand unless they have gone through it.

“Paul was struggling and blamed himself. He kept saying that he was his daddy and he should have saved him.”

Unable to cope with the loss of his son, five days later Paul took his own life. He was later diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I couldn’t do anything to save George, nobody could.

“But Paul’s death could have been prevented," she continued. "Somebody should have come to our home, sat us down and said ‘I can’t tell you how you’re going to feel.

‘But you need to be aware that it’s normal to feel that this is your fault, that you could have prevented this somehow – but you couldn’t have’.

Later that year Rhian founded 2 Wish Upon A Star with the mission of providing vital support for suddenly bereaved parents.

“What started out as a fund to support suddenly bereaved parents has developed in to something very special.

“The last two years in particular have seen the charity grow at a phenomenal rate.

"We’ve moved premises, taken on four members of staff and increased our network across Wales.”

In the last 18 months the charity has supported 122 family members with referrals coming in most days.

The charity recently expanded its services to include families that lose a child aged 26 and under to accommodate the distressing number of suicides and fatal car accidents within this demographic.

Over the past few years 2 Wish Upon A Star has helped establish a number of support groups that are open to the whole family.

These groups offer professional and compassionate support, helping reduce the feeling of isolation that can come with a significant loss.

Support groups are currently running in Aberystwyth, Haverfordwest, Carmarthen, Swansea, Talbot Green and Cardiff.

“We’ve come so far in such a short space of time – but there is so much more still to do," Rhian said.

“We have the Royal Glamorgan family room to open, which will be a very special moment for me as it will be dedicated to Paul and George.

“We also have plans to open a North Wales office; and once we have successfully rolled our pilot programme out across Wales, we would like to support families across the entire UK.”