Client Case Study: The Widowed Collective

We began working with The Widowed Collective ahead of its launch in 2025, supporting the communications around the introduction of a new UK-wide non-profit organisation created by and for widowed people. Founded by Nicky Wake and Natalie Bolton and led by people with lived experience, the organisation was established to help widows and widowers feel less isolated as they navigate life after the loss of a partner.

Natalie Bolton, Nicky Wake, Heather Smith & Rosie Moss - The Widowed Collective

We began working with The Widowed Collective ahead of its launch in 2025, supporting the communications around the introduction of a new UK-wide non-profit organisation created by and for widowed people. Founded by Nicky Wake and Natalie Bolton and led by people with lived experience, the organisation was established to help widows and widowers feel less isolated as they navigate life after the loss of a partner.

Our role focused on communicating the organisation’s purpose and building external visibility around its launch. Working alongside its existing team, we supported messaging, founder communications, media strategy, content development, interviews and wider launch activity, creating opportunities for The Widowed Collective, its founders and its members to reach new audiences and begin establishing a national profile.

The launch generated coverage across newspapers,  magazines, radio, podcasts and online, alongside longer-form interviews and features exploring the founders’ stories and the need for dedicated peer support after bereavement. This initial activity created a strong communications foundation for the national awareness campaigns that followed.

Just weeks later, we developed and delivered #WidowedAtChristmas, The Widowed Collective’s first national awareness campaign. The campaign focused on the realities of grief and loneliness during the festive period, bringing together the experiences of four widows to offer recognition and solidarity to other widowed people.

Our support extended across campaign strategy, messaging, lived-experience storytelling, content development, social planning, contributor preparation, broadcast and media relations. We developed a joined-up campaign that could work across external media and The Widowed Collective’s own communications, giving the organisation a consistent platform for talking about an often overlooked aspect of bereavement throughout December.

#WidowedAtChristmas generated extensive television, radio, newspaper, magazine and digital coverage, keeping the campaign visible throughout December and over the Christmas period itself. Highlights included BBC, ITV, Heart, Capital, Smooth and Greatest Hits Radio, alongside coverage across 50+ print and online titles including Manchester Evening News, Lancashire Telegraph, KentOnline, Oxford Mail and Edinburgh Evening News. A powerful opinion piece published by LBC Online provided another platform for lived experience and helped extend the campaign into a wider national conversation about grief, loneliness and life after the death of a partner.

The next major phase of our work was #WidowedAndForgotten, developed around International Widows Day 2026. We created the campaign concept and identity around an issue repeatedly raised by widowed people, the sense that support and attention can diminish long before the realities of grief and rebuilding a life have disappeared.

The campaign brought together nine widows and widowers from across the UK, each with a different experience of bereavement and life after loss. We worked closely with contributors to understand and develop their stories sensitively, identify the strongest themes and create a wider campaign narrative around loneliness, grief, identity, family life, health and rebuilding.

Every contributor generated media interest, with the campaign securing 50+ pieces of coverage across television, radio, national newspapers, magazines and digital media. Major highlights included The Sun, Daily Mirror, BBC News, ITV, London Evening Standard, Manchester Evening News, The Yorkshire Post and Liverpool Echo. A major feature with Happiful Magazine also explored The Widowed Collective and the wider realities of widowhood in greater depth.

Alongside securing external visibility, #WidowedAndForgotten created a substantial body of communications content for the organisation. The individual stories were developed into materials that could support media activity, website content and wider organisational communications, while campaign messaging, social content and digital materials gave The Widowed Collective further ways to continue the conversation through its own channels after International Widows Day.

Our work with The Widowed Collective has also extended beyond these individual campaigns. We have supported founder profiling, member storytelling, website and digital content, broadcast preparation and longer-form opportunities that help build understanding of both the organisation and the experiences of the people within its community.

One of the strongest examples came when Channel 5 News named Nicky its “Hero of the Week”, creating a national television feature exploring both her personal journey and the wider impact of The Widowed Collective. The programme filmed Nicky alongside members of the community, bringing the organisation’s purpose to life through the people it exists to support and introducing its work to a substantial mainstream audience.

Across the launch and two national campaigns, our focus has been much broader than generating media coverage. We have helped The Widowed Collective develop campaign platforms, communicate complex and sensitive experiences, create a growing bank of stories and content, build the profiles of its people and establish a stronger national voice around widowhood and life after partner loss.

Rather than treating each campaign or media opportunity in isolation, the work has been about building an ongoing communications programme that supports the organisation as it grows, reaches more widowed people and contributes to wider conversations about bereavement, loneliness, identity and support.

If your organisation is looking for strategic communications support to strengthen its profile, develop campaigns and reach the audiences that matter, get in touch to discuss how we can work together.