Jodie Mattey was just nine when her beloved dad Alan died of bowel cancer at the age of 40, leaving his wife Leanne and their three children aged six, nine and 11.

Grief Encounter founder Dr Shelley Gilbert was Leanne’s first port of call when Alan died after a six-year battle with cancer. She advised her how to break the sad news to their three young children (Answer: tell them straight “Daddy has died”, so they understand they’re not going to see him again). The charity then supported the Mattey family with various therapies and groups for several years afterwards. Jodie remembers her and younger brother Jack having art therapy to help process the loss, while for her older brother Daniel, talking therapy helped.

Jodie recalls, “We were looked after so well by Grief Encounter, they felt like family.”

Jodie is so grateful for Grief Encounter’s support she has qualified as a child play therapist to give other bereaved children the support she had, which is not available on the NHS. Her dream is to become a play therapist for Grief Encounter, knowing how much the service is needed and wanting to give back to the charity that supported her family so well.

Capturing precious memories

During the six years following diagnosis, knowing Alan’s time was limited, Leanne took photos of the family “obsessively” to capture precious memories of him and his zest for life.

Jodie, now aged 27, is glad she did. “After 18 years, it does sometimes feel like my memories are fading so it’s great to have the photos to remind me and bring back all our happy times together.”

While the Mattey family had carefully catalogued all their photos into hundreds of albums. they wanted to be able to enjoy them on phones and computers whether they were at home or anywhere in the world. The Mattey family used a service from reLOVE Photos to scan their paper photos into high quality digital images that can be safely stored and shared electronically in the same way as digital photos on a phone, tablet or computer.

They are arranged into modern private digital galleries which not only bring these old, treasured memories to life, but also take advantage of state-of-the-art, secure, cloud facilities to safeguard these precious and irreplaceable reminders.

Best of all, the  photos are readily accessible – available to view on a password-protected online gallery using a phone, tablet or computer or on a memory stick. reLOVE also often digitises family video, slide and audio collections to be archived alongside their photo collection. It means Jodie and her two brothers each have access to the entire photographic collection whenever they want, wherever in the world they are.

Celebrating memories

“What the reLOVE Photos team have done is absolutely incredible,” Jodie says. “They’ve allowed us to have those photos with us 24/7 and they’ll always be in perfect condition, which I find a great comfort. I love having them so easily accessible, which real-life memories aren’t always with the passage of time. And they’ll always be there.”

As Jodie found, the reLOVE service is easy to use. Most customers choose the company’s Premium service in which reLOVE supplies a box and packaging and arranges secure, tracked Royal Mail delivery back to its lab. Photos are digitised in an extremely high quality format (1200 dpi) and families can enjoy and share them online the moment they are scanned.

Jodie admits, “I’ve become a bit obsessed with looking at the photos to reconnect that inner child with my dad. My dad loved all of us deeply but, as his only daughter, I was the apple of his eye – definitely a daddy’s girl. Even after all this time, the photos are still helping me every day and I genuinely believe the reLOVE service can comfort others who are grieving too.”

Recognising the value of photos in preserving memories of loved ones, Grief Encounter encourages families to Celebrate Memories and has negotiated a 10% discount for the families we support.  This will enable families to take a leaf out of the Mattey family’s book and bring their treasured memories back to life.