A 24-hour helpline for grieving parents run by an Oxford couple is under threat unless it receives urgent funds to keep it afloat.

Mark Roberts and his wife Sarah, 34, from Cutteslowe, run the Grieving Parents Support Group, set up following the death of their 20-month-old son Matthew more than eight years ago.

They opened the helpline the same year to give support and advice to parents struggling with similar tragedies.

The couple, who run the service from their home in Hawksmoor Road, have helped thousands of people.

But now they are teetering on the edge of closure, because of a shortage of donations in recent months.

The couple’s young son died after slipping in a bath while staying with relatives in Reading.

Father-of-nine Mr Roberts, a former chef, said: “We can probably carry on for another two months but we will struggle after that. We don’t want to close the lines down.

“Since September last year we’ve had just under 2,000 calls, the year before it was 3,000. This year in total it should be about 4,000 calls.”

The 64-year-old said the charity had been surviving on £10,000 a year, but that he needed double that figure to pay bills and secure its future.

Money is spent on printing advertising leaflets, phone bills, and visits to parents across the country who request one-to-one visits. The charity also helps parents with paperwork when a child dies.

He said: “We are getting more and more calls and most of them aren’t from Oxfordshire, it’s across the whole country.

“The average call is 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half and in some cases longer, unless people want a one-to-one. Then they come to us or we go to them.

“We get calls from Scotland, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol – all over, some at three in the morning.”

The charity has two other volunteers and all four take it in turns to staff two phone lines.

Mr Roberts said: “Talking does help the people who ring us, because they know we have been in the same position and we understand them and we can give them comfort.

He added: “Sometimes callers can see the child walking around the house, they can see an image of them and they think it’s abnormal to go through this, but it’s not.

“I went through the same thing. I was in bed and I could see our son standing at the bottom of the bed talking to me.

“We also have parents who blame themselves, they say they should have been there for them, I say: ‘No, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.’”

  • If you are a parent needing support, call the Grieving Parents Support Group on 0845 603 4309.
  • To offer help or money to the charity see grieving247.com