A Norfolk charity which supports the families of fallen service personnel has taken on a bereavement support worker to strengthen its team.

Lorna Vyse has joined King's Lynn-based Scotty's Little Soldiers to help strengthen the support the charity provides to children and young people who have experienced the death of a parent in the armed forces.

Scotty’s was founded in 2010 by war widow Nikki Scott, a year after her husband, Corporal Lee Scott, was killed in action in Afghanistan. As a young widow, she saw the devastating impact his death had on their two young children and set up the charity to help others in the same situation.  

Ten years later, the charity supports more than 400 children and young people with respite breaks for families that need to get away, gifts at extra difficult times of the year and connecting bereaved families through special events,.

Mrs Vyse has worked with children and young people in a variety of settings for more than 25 years. She spent nine of them working for the Army Welfare Service as a community development Worker, offering front line youth and community support to soldiers’ families.

She went on to specialise in childhood bereavement and for the past ten years she has worked for the Norfolk-based child bereavement charity Nelson's Journey, directly supporting children and young people impacted by the death of a significant person in their lives.

Mrs Vyse said: “I am really pleased to be joining the Scotty’s team and hope that my specialist skills in childhood bereavement and project development can help strengthen all the good work the charity does supporting bereaved British forces children and young people.”

Scotty's founder Nikki Scott said: “We’ve known Lorna for quite some time and she’s someone we have often gone to for bereavement advice. We are so delighted that she is now part of our team.

"Lorna is extremely knowledgeable in child bereavement, but she also has a military background, so she couldn’t be more perfect for this role. She’s got so many exciting ideas for ways we can further support bereaved military children and young people, which we can’t wait to start working on.”