Help Joseph Rose’s Family – Light the Way Through Grief

What happened:

Just six weeks ago, Joseph suddenly became unwell and was diagnosed with Burkitt Lymphoma, a rare and extremely aggressive form of blood cancer. One week after his diagnosis, he passed away on Thursday 4th of September.

Joseph faced this final initiation with the same qualities he carried throughout his life: courage, dignity, playfulness, curiosity, and a profound connection to spirit. Even in the face of such a fierce and fast-moving illness, he met it with an open heart. He saw his illness as a deep opportunity - to understand disease and healing from the inside out, through direct lived experience.

He leaves behind his young family - Kate, and their children, Ahren and Thalia (ages 2 and 3) - as well as his parents, Julie and David, his brother Tiger, and a vast community of loved ones whose lives were forever touched by his energy, generosity, and light.

Your help is needed:

The community has come together to launch this crowdfund to help cover urgent costs, create stability in the months ahead, and to nurture a future where this young family can grow with care, stability and love. This fundraiser is more than just a response to loss—it is a deep prayer for the future. It is a way to begin rebuilding a foundation after the sudden and devastating passing of Joseph.

Kate is now a full time single mother of two young children, aged 2 and 3. With Joseph as the family’s sole earner, the family has no source of income. Your support will help ease the immediate financial pressure - contributing to essential needs like childcare, so Kate can have moments to rest, grieve, and tend to practical matters - while also creating space to plan for the road ahead, one step at a time.

Your generosity will support Kate and the children at different stages of this journey:

The family will also receive whatever state support is available and continue to rely on the extraordinary practical help of friends and family day to day.

How to support this campaign:

Please support this appeal in any way you can. It’s not about the size of the gift, but the continuity of care - a steady reminder that Kate and the children are held by a wide circle of practical love and support. Any contribution you can offer, in whatever form, will help make life gentler, more stable, and more supported for Joseph’s beloved family.

Any donation that you make will be transferred directly to the family to help them navigate this time. Our initial goal is £18,000, with a longer-term target to be updated as donations are received.

If you’d like to offer ongoing support, there is an option at checkout to make your donation monthly. For those wishing to make a private donation or discuss specific wishes, please reach out to the family or contact Francesca, the Organiser, below.

Please share this campaign widely - through social media, WhatsApp groups, and word of mouth. Be guided by your heart, appeal to your networks, and circulate within your communities. We would be truly grateful.

Joseph’s story:

From the moment he arrived, Joseph’s enthusiasm for life took the word enthusiasm to a whole new level. Born 5½ weeks early, he was hungry for life and always in a hurry to embrace it fully.

He grew up in Cornwall with his mama Julie, his papa David, and his brother Tiger. From his early teens, it was clear Joseph was a natural healer. He had the most incredible healing hands, and at just 16 he trained as a massage therapist. He also discovered his passion for music, another way he offered his healing, love, and joy to the world.

Joseph was called to the path of shamanism and travelled extensively in South America, learning from many powerful teachers, healers, and ceremonial leaders. He brought those teachings home, holding regular sweat lodges, guiding ceremonies, working with young people, and training in a variety of healing modalities.

Together with other young people, he co-founded The Living Projects in Totnes, a community connection space & food-growing initiative, and went on to become one of the youngest District Councillors in the country. Through his words, actions, and leadership, he embodied the spirit of a generation working for change on this planet.

In true Joseph style, he met and fell deeply in love with Kate in early 2021. Within months they married, and soon after welcomed their first child, Ahren. Their daughter, Thalia followed just a year later. Joseph embraced fatherhood with the same passion and devotion he brought to everything else in life — hands-on, caring, playful, and full of fun. With Kate, he created a warm and nurturing family home in their beloved off-grid community land at Oakwood, Devon.

Most recently, Joseph trained as a Pain Reprocessing Therapist and was preparing to study Internal Family Systems therapy. He had become deeply passionate about working with the nervous system, helping people rewire trauma and transform patterns of ill health on a profound level. For Joseph, this was never just about individual healing — it was his way of contributing to the wider healing of humanity, addressing the dis-ease and challenges we face collectively in our world today.

A message from Kate, Joseph’s wife:

Although it is hard to imagine at the moment, we will find our way forward day by day — fuelled by the incredible support surrounding us, and Joseph’s guiding light. Our world has been turned upside down so suddenly: one day we were living life together as a family, and the next, we are navigating unimaginable loss.

This crowdfunder is a deep prayer for my children's future; their wellbeing - emotional, physical, and spiritual - is at the very heart of this campaign. At such a tender age, they are facing a level of grief, instability, and change that no child should ever have to experience. As their mother, I’m doing everything I can to create a safe, nurturing and emotionally grounded home where they can continue to grow, play, learn, and feel deeply loved - even in the midst of heartbreak and grief.

My intention is to rebuild from the ground up—not just our physical space, but also our sense of safety, connection, and belonging. We live in a small off-grid community, where the values of self-reliance, simplicity, and closeness to nature are central to our way of life. Now more than ever, creating a warm, safe and stable home within this environment is a priority. The hearth and home we now begin to reshape together will be a place where my children can remember their father, find comfort, and slowly heal.

We will be seeking regular counselling and support through the Hand in Hand Parenting approach - a trauma-informed method that helps children process grief and build resilience through strong, connected relationships. This will support not only their healing, but also my own capacity to hold them through the waves of emotion and big feelings that lie ahead.

Every donation, no matter the size, goes directly toward creating a secure and loving foundation for my children. Your support means we are not walking this path alone. It means giving my children the chance to thrive, even in the face of deep loss.

With love and gratitude,

Kate xx

A message from Julie and David, Joseph’s parents:

We are utterly heartbroken at the loss of our beloved, shining Joseph. To lose a son at just 31 is beyond what we can put into words, and our lives, like Kate’s and the children’s, have been turned upside down.

As his parents, and as grandparents to little Ahren and Thalia, our greatest hope and prayer is that Kate and our wonderful grandchildren are surrounded by stability, love, and community as they find their way forward, without papa Joseph.

Already, we are feeling the most extraordinary outpouring of love from across the world. Joseph touched so many lives with his warmth, courage, and vision, and it moves us deeply to see how many people are asking how they can help.

For those near and far, this fundraiser is one way to stand beside Kate and the children. Your donations will help carry them through the immense challenges ahead, ensuring they feel supported practically as well as emotionally. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for walking with us in this time of unbearable loss.

Supporting Julie and David:

The fundraiser is focused on supporting Kate and the children, which is the family’s deepest priority. Some people, however, have expressed a wish to also support Joseph’s parents, Julie and David, privately as they navigate their own grief and take time away from work to heal. If this is something you would like to do, please contact them directly to make an arrangement.

Thank you from us all:

Our hearts are full of vulnerability, tenderness, and gratitude. Thank you for your prayers, love, generosity, and continued support. Every act of kindness, care, and connection lifts our spirits and lights the way forward for our family. Thank you for standing with us.

In gratitude,

Kate, Ahren, and Thalia

Julie and David (Joseph’s Parents)