About

My name is Ollie Kasper-Hope. I am forty-one, a grief-experienced consultant, a girl dad and a husband, and my hobbies are homebrewing and football.

In my mid to late twenties I lost both my parents suddenly, within twenty months of each other. One through a heart defect and the other through suicide. The two were not connected, and my parents were not together. I was so young, and really not developed into who I was supposed to be at that point, and it was a massive shock to the system.

I carved out a good career for myself in higher education and worked for some fantastic organisations. Nearly six years ago I founded an organisation called Alkhemy, and for that time I have worked as an organisational consultant.

One good return to work, and one bad one

I had a good experience going back to work after my mum died, and a bad experience going back after my dad. I just threw myself into work after my mum passed away, and it was fine. When my dad passed away I had responsibilities in my role, and I was not a very good manager when I got back.

Something has been eating at me for the rest of my career since. What am I doing about grief? I have had these two profound things happen to me and they impacted me so much, my life, my work and who I am as a person, and it is as if I have been ignoring a certain part of my being.

So this is what Aftergrowth is for

It gives me the opportunity to write about my experience with grief and bereavement and what comes next. It also lets me help workplaces, and ultimately the people going back into those settings again.

That is really what Aftergrowth is about. Helping people with my writing and with the community on Substack, and being able to help organisations through this by offering what I know as a grief-experienced person alongside my professional experience: management consultancy, project management, and organisational culture. This is just me doing that through the prism of grief.

It does not matter whether they are classed as an immediate relative or not. Whoever holds that place in your heart counts.

Who I want to help

Whatever yours turns out to be

Whether that is going back to work, or having children and your parents not being there to meet them, or whatever it is for you. Whether it has just happened or it happened years ago. I want to be able to help people with grief and bereavement, and that is why I do what I do.

If any of this is close to home right now, there are people on the support page who are good at this, and Samaritans are on 116 123 at any hour.

Get the writing

Working somewhere that needs help with this? Here is what I do for organisations.