After turning 40, taking stock of life and desiring a new challenge away from teaching, Chell decided to embark on a change of career within an employability or social enterprise setting. Tragically, three months into job searching, in March 2019, her beloved life-partner, Craig William Giles, died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack. It was supposed to be a new start. Instead, her darling Craig was dead. Her world as she knew it was gone.
In January 2020, pre-pandemic, and after 10 months of debilitating grief, Chell felt a strong calling to be part of the grief revolution and was ready to do something. Chell approached a business advisor at the Women’s Org, regarding setting up ‘something’ to support bereaved people at work, to honour Craig, and to help others in a similar position. Even before Covid, it was clear that the idea ‘had legs’, but it was during the Covid-19 lockdown that Chell knew it was the right time to going with her idea. This led to the development of the unique programme with a meaningful and supportive method of acknowledging ‘the elephant in the room’ and educating people on how to bring grief into our everyday dialogue. It is also a way to support others in expressing their experiences of loss and grief. It first started with supporting individuals with their grief.
Chell’s original plan was to address ‘Grief in the Workplace’ following her twin sister’s experience of grieving at work, where she felt misunderstood and vulnerable, which ultimately led to her leaving her job. This was also sadly a common experience of many young widows in Chell’s support group, WAY (Widowed and Young), which is why it’s particularly poignant for her to be delivering these sessions for employers. Elephants & Empathy is excited to be delivering these pilot sessions, taking place in February 2022 in partnership with Transform Lives Company.
In addition to her extensive experience in delivering education and pastoral leadership, Chell’s own personal experience of bereavement (and her determination to help other grievers) led to her gaining a qualification as a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist and then an Advanced GR Specialist. Chell enlisted a therapist colleague to work with her to create the programme, ensuring it was therapeutically safe, informative and meaningful, putting Chell in a good position to begin supporting, educating and empowering others to explore and express their thoughts, feelings and ideas about grief, loss and bereavement.
Together with Transform Lives Company, it is Chell’s mission to support others who have struggled, and who are struggling, with their own losses (whether from death, or any of the vast array of other losses we can suffer in a lifetime). Chell also wants to help people to support others in dealing with loss, grief and bereavement – it seems that no one teaches us how to do this and these are vital skills for life. Chell is doing this to honour Craig’s memory and the memories of everyone we have loved and lost.
Chell is doing this to honour Craig’s memory
and to honour the memories of everyone we have loved and lost.