Sarah, Jon and Megan Abernathy-Hope

Something someone said to me is that, ‘grief is love with nowhere to go’ and that’s always stuck with me massively.

The Abernethy-Hope family is based in the small village of Bishop Sutton in Somerset. Parents Jon and Sarah and daughter Meg, a model and graduate of Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre School, are missing one of the family’s core members: son and brother Billy, who suddenly passed away in 2018.

Billy died far from home while travelling in Thailand, where a motorbike accident claimed his life. The circumstances of Billy’s death abroad made it difficult to have a send-off at the time that would have been representative of his life and personality. So, in July 2019, the Abernethy-Hope family organised “FestaBill” in their back garden. Billy was a lover of music and dancing, so they created an uplifting memorial service that celebrated his joy for life, complete with an animation of his favourite childhood book, a flaming twenty foot Viking ship and a performance from rapper Professor Green. To continue Billy’s legacy, Jon, Sarah and Meg created The Billy Chip scheme to support the homeless and give them access to hot drinks. All profits from the scheme go to the B A Hope Foundation, a charity the family set up to give grants to small homeless charities for supplies and other resources.

Turn that love you would have given to someone else into love for yourself to look after yourself.