Overview

Every year in Ireland children die suddenly, unexpectedly and sometimes without explanation and, on average, 10 people are strongly impacted by the sudden death of a child. FirstLight, established in 1977, provides free professional crisis intervention and counselling services nationwide to families who suddenly lose a child up to 18 years of age. 43 years on, we remain the only organisation providing such professional services to suddenly bereaved families, either within or outside of the State’s services. Further details of the types of services provided by FirstLight are described in the Case Studies below. While just 20 per cent of the required funding is provided by the State, all of our professional services are provided free of charge and in 2018 we supported more than 2,000 people. Through understanding their grieving process and receiving help in dealing with their bereavement from appropriately trained professionals, families can learn to live with their grief and begin rebuilding their lives – to find the FirstLight. As one Mum put it “Through the support I received I can look forward to living again, something I never thought I could do”.