The Ruth Strauss Foundation
The Ruth Strauss Foundation was founded in 2019 by Sir Andrew Strauss following the death of his wife Ruth after a terminal non-smoking Lung Cancer diagnosis. Our purpose is to build a worthy legacy for Ruth that will make a real positive impact on people's lives. The Vision is twofold, as guided by Ruth; that our society understands the importance of preparing for grief and how to help families ‘do death well', and that the world knows better how to prevent and treat non-smoking lung cancers.
Our Family Mission is to ensure that every family with a child facing the death of a parent is offered the professional emotional support they need to prepare the family for the future.
Our Research Mission is to facilitate collaboration and influence research in the fight against non-smoking lung cancers, so that together we find the causes sooner and improve outcomes.
The Ruth Strauss Foundation was honoured to be chosen to be a beneficiary charity of the Quintessentially Foundation. The funds raised through this partnership will support one of the Foundation’s strategic priorities to ‘be the trusted destination for family pre-bereavement support’. As a part of this we are developing the first UK-wide specialist helpline & online service to offer pre- bereavement support for families, which is helping families facing death throughout the UK.
We are phenomenally grateful to the Quintessentially Foundation and the incredible energy and fundraising powers of all the individuals involved. 24,000 parents with dependent children die in the UK each year, and each year within the UK, 41,000 children under the age of 18 are bereaved of a parent. It is hard to adequately describe the challenges that families face when a parent receives a terminal diagnosis and the effect it can have on children and the surviving parent. The support of the Quintessentially Foundation will help us to support many more families facing one of their toughest tests.
