Cramlington support group for grandparents denied access to their grandchildren launched by former Town Mayor

Loraine De Simone, who remains a town councillor, plans for the group’s sessions to take place at Cramlington Community Hub at 10.30am on the last Friday of every month, starting on Friday, September 29.

She decided to start the group as she was affected by this issue herself after her son passed away.

At that point she discovered that support groups existed, but the nearest options involved travelling south to Durham or north to Glasgow.

Loraine said: “I decided to turn a negative into a positive and to start up a group, which I think is in need in this particular part of the world.

“I understand there are quite a lot of people who are suffering from not seeing their grandchildren and obviously it is a two way street. The grandchildren do not see their grandparents.”

Loraine hopes the meetings can help others with broken relationships to their grandchildren realise there are others going through something similar.

She said: “It is for people to come along, have a coffee, not feel isolated, and just generally to know they are not on their own.

“They can come and discuss, or not as the case may be, what they have gone through. If they want to share it, that's fine. If not then I understand.”

If the group grows as much as Loraine expects, she believes that it could spawn new groups in the north or west of the county.

Once the group has built up some regular members, she plans to invite along guest speakers, such as family law specialists, to give presentations at the sessions as well.

Despite many grandparents being responsible for looking after children for working parents, they do not have legal access rights and are, according to Loraine, “totally forgotten about.”

She said: “I remember my grandparents with love. It was wonderful, just wonderful.

“They are definitely the link to the past for the grandchildren, and grandchildren are a link to the future for grandparents.”