Former footballer, Rio Ferdinand, visited a Bucks-based bereavement charity while filming a heartbreaking new documentary about the death of his wife.

The brave former England captain lost his wife Rebecca to cancer in 2015, leaving him to raise their three children, Lorenz, 10, Tate, eight, and five-year-old Tia, alone.

A BBC1 documentary, Being Mum and Dad, follows Rio as he meets other families coping with bereavement and looks at the help available for parents and children who have experienced loss.

As part of filming, Rio visited Child Bereavement UK’s offices in Saunderton to attend their Young People’s Advisory Group session.

Grieving young people who are being supported by the charity, which is based at the Clare Charity Centre on Wycombe Road, gave Rio tips on how to talk to his children about the death of their mum

The youngsters, aged between 11 and 25, talked to him about their experiences around the death of their parent and what had helped them and made and presented a selection of posters with tips for Rio.

On meeting the sportsman, Keeley, 15, who was supported by Child Bereavement UK after her mum died when she was eight, said: “It was inspirational to meet Rio and to know that he wanted to listen to us so he could help his children.”

In the documentary, which airs tonight (March 28) at 9pm, Rio gives a candid account of the impact of his wife’s death on him and his family, the complexities of his grieving and the challenges of being a widowed parent to his children.

The star has spoken about the difficulties he faced getting his children to talk about their mum and how using the memory jar, a method used by the young people at Child Bereavement UK to help them talk about and remember the person who has died, helped his children.

Jackie Grant, youth worker at Child Bereavement UK, said: “The memory jar is one of the many activities we suggest to families at Child Bereavement UK, especially when there is a worry about forgetting their special person or children are quite young and are relying on other people’s memories.

"It helps them to collect memories for them to create a picture of what their special person was like.

“It was wonderful that Rio used this with his children.”

Being Mum and Dad airs on Tuesday, March 28 at 9pm, BBC1.