The Bodie Hodges Foundation

De Montfort #LoveBiz Community

Contact: Ruth Johnson

Telephone: 07857 943322

Website: https://bodiehodgesfoundation.co.uk/

The Bodie Hodges Foundation is a local Leicestershire based charity that supports families who have been bereaved of a child.

The charity was formed in 2013, by Nick and Donna Hodges after the death of their ten-month-old son Bodie. They wanted to offer support to other bereaved families as their experience highlighted how isolating losing a child was.

We also promote and raise awareness of organ donation with our community as Bodie became an organ donor at just 10 months old and saved or improved the lives of other children. He donated his liver, bowel and heart valves to four other babies giving them and their families another chance at life.

The charity has now become well-regarded regionally for its sensitive, effective professional 1-1 bereavement services and peer support groups to adults, children, and young people in their darkest hour of grief.

We exist to support families who have experienced the death of their child aged from 24 weeks gestation to 18 years living in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland.

Our vision is to give hope to families bereaved of a child by providing a range of specialist services that encourage them to rebuild and remember. Our approach is compassionate, creative, and community-focused, helping parents, siblings, and grandparents navigate their grief and find hope for the future.

All our services are free of charge to ensure that no bereaved families are left to grieve alone.

Our current services for families bereaved of a child include:

Bodies Bereavement Service
Parents, children and young people have access to 1-1 early therapeutic bereavement counselling services for up to 2 years after the death of their child/sibling.
We support siblings with gentle 1-1 sessions either in school or at Bodie’s House, which help children to understand their grief and support memory making.

Peer support groups
We run 5 peer support groups for families and these include:

Creative Grief workshop for bereaved mums
Chips and a chat for bereaved dads
Grandparents Group
Together Project youth group for bereaved siblings aged 11-16 years
Together Project youth group for bereaved siblings aged 6-10 years

Bodies Treasured Memory Bags is our national project offering specially tailored bags to families and across the UK, to support sibling grief and encourage conversations around death.