‘My brother struggled after our mum died – I don’t want his kids to go through the same’

‘My brother was never unkind or bitter. Nobody ever had a bad word to say about him – he was just so loveable,’ says Johnny (left – pictured with Philip)

Philip de Mouilpied never recovered after losing his mother to breast cancer at the age of 10.

When Kathleen died 37 years ago, there was no bereavement support, leaving Philip, his younger brother Johnny, and their sisters, Caroline and Andrea, struggling to cope.

Their dad, also called Philip, gave all the support he could alongside his wife’s sister Josie, who would also be taken by the disease six years later.

‘There was a lot of death growing up. We lived in a lot of grief and sadne...