Cambridge Widows
We get it
Welcome to our community of widows.
It’s the club which no-one wants to join, but we’re glad you are here.
“The biggest predictor of our outcome in facing the death of a partner is the love and connection to others.”
— Julia Samuel
Welcome to Cambridge Widows
Cambridge Widows is a growing peer support and friendship group for widows in and around Cambridge in the UK. It all began when Judy Reith and Helen Judson were introduced by a mutual neighbour soon after their husbands died of cancer. Quickly realising the incredible bond created by widowhood, they started to gather more widows to meet regularly. Together with Leonie Hyde, whose husband had died 12 months earlier, they founded Cambridge Widows, and launched this website to make it easy for widows and widowers to find friendship, connection and solidarity.
We are different women dealing with one of the hardest things you have to face. We are mostly aged between 45 and 65 at an age we did not expect to be widowed. Some of us are working. Some are mothers to teenagers or adult children. Some are not. One remarried recently.
We have monthly meet-ups for widows to help cope with our grief, whatever our background or circumstances. We also arrange social activities which are open to anyone who has been widowed (men and women), such as walks, outings and fund raising events for charities. In Spring 2024 we held the first Widowed Choir day in Cambridge, with The Widowed Sing now an annual event.
The Widowed Sing 2026 takes place on Saturday 10 October at St Paul’s Church, Hills Road, Cambridge in aid of Arthur Rank Hospice Charity.
Our Values
Acceptance: Connection: Friendship
Why Cambridge Widows helps
We are local. Our unique offer is meeting in person, and running events to bring widowed people together. So much bereavement help is online only, which is valuable, but nothing replaces the warmth and solidarity from meeting together. We laugh, we cry. We go for walks and go to the cinema together. We have difficult, fascinating, and reassuring conversations, that range from what to do with wedding rings, to managing family and friends, anniversaries, and milestones. At a recent gathering, one of our members called it a ‘wonderful hug of an evening’.
We get it.
Come and join us.
Find out more
“I felt understood and held and felt I could just chat and listen to everyone, and be open about my grief in a safe space.”
— A Cambridge widow
Please note that we offer peer to peer support and connection. We are not a counselling service. If you are looking for in depth or more immediate support, we have listed organisations, books and podcasts which helped us on our Resources page.