MEREDITH ROBINSON, 43, treasures the photograph of the little boy she once had, far away in England. He was born in London on November 29, 1992, but lived only a short life, dying from an attack of croup at 13 months.

The horror of Rex's death lives with her to this day. She and her husband Lionel had travelled to spend Boxing Day with Lionel's mother, a doctor, who had told them that croup was nothing to worry about.

Ms Robinson and her husband came to Australia six months after Rex died. Being an Australian, she wanted the comforts of home and Lionel, a jazz musician she met in England, agreed to resettle.

Just before what should have been Rex's second birthday in 1994, Ms Robinson's grief escalated dramatically. She sought help, through a telephone book advertisement, from Grief Support Inc, a Wahroonga-based bereavement organisation.

Grief Support, formed by a community psychiatrist, Dr Paul Finlayson, after the Granville rail disaster, had worked quietly and inconspicuously at training and supporting volunteers to help people through their grief.

Now, through lack of community support, Grief Support, which has helped tens of thousands of people during three decades, looks as if it might have to close its doors. All who have been helped and who, in turn, have supported it, are about to grieve again.

Strapped for cash, the organisation was set to close its doors at the end of June, but it has agreed to battle on for another six months in the hope of finding extra funding.

Sue England, therapist, spiritual counsellor and vice-president of Grief Support, said the service had operated a 24-hour telephone counselling service and at its peak, had taken about 1000 calls a year. The costs of training the counsellors, once a week for 12 weeks, as well as mentoring and administering the organisation, had been overwhelming.

When Ms Robinson contacted Grief Support in 1994, her call was taken by an understanding woman called Gaynor, who encouraged her to celebrate the birthday by walking along the beach and releasing balloons.

"At the end of the day, I felt comforted and incredibly enriched by the conversation," Ms Robinson said.

"I was not ready to let go of my grief. But it was very therapeutic just to be able to tell my story and have somebody empathetic listening, without trying to move me on."

Ms Robinson called Grief Support again on the anniversary of Rex's death. The counsellor understood Ms Robinson's anguish, having lost a child herself. Ms Robinson, who gave birth to a healthy daughter, Jessamyn, in February 1996, was inspired, along with Lionel, to volunteer as a Grief Support counsellor. She went through the training course and, manning the telephone, knew the drill.

"The temptation is to try to fix it up, or say something, you know, tell them something good is going to happen to them," she said. "But really, it is just people wanting to be sad." Ms Robinson has since devoted herself to motherhood and other social work.

But she feels that an organisation, founded in the circumstances of the Granville rail disaster 31 years ago and inspired by Dr Finlayson's philosophy, should not be allowed to pass away with nobody noticing.