A YORK mother whose partner died of a heart attack while out jogging has launched a campaign to end the "heartless discrimination" suffered by unmarried parents when their partners die.

Laura Rudd, 34, said her partner Nigel Glanville, 50, collapsed in the street while he was out for an evening jog near their home in Wilberfoss earlier this month.

She said she found the ambulance when she went out to look for him with their two-year-old son, Noah.

“From there, our world came crashing down,” she said. “I lost the love of my life and our little boy lost his daddy at an age when he is far too young to grasp what that means.

“He just thinks his daddy is hiding and keeps asking when he is going to come home.”

But she said that almost immediately she found herself thrust into a legal limbo and discovered that, despite being Nigel’s partner for the last nine years and the mother of his son, she was not eligible for financial support that would have been available had they tied the knot.

Laura, a teacher, said that when she had to register his death and begin organising his funeral, she was recorded as "person organising funeral", rather than his partner or the mother of his child and had to register him as "single".

She said: "It was a spit in the face for nearly a decade spent together, simply because in the eyes of the law Noah and I aren’t even recognised.”

She said she now had to find about £3,000 to pay for his funeral, which she didn’t have, and she said anyone who lost a partner to whom they were not married was not entitled to make a claim for a bereavement support payment.

“All for the sake of a piece of paper, I get nothing,” she said. “I count as nothing and neither does our child, our beautiful son, who is not yet even three years old.

“To me, this is blatant, heartless discrimination, adding to an already painful process. How is this still happening in 2020?

“Thousands of people across the UK every week must be facing this same predicament that I now face, and it is just not good enough.”

She said the supreme court had ruled recently that denying an unmarried mother of four children widowed parent’s allowance amounted to discrimination but 18 months on there had been no change in the law.

Laura said: “Many couples mistakenly believe they have the same legal and financial rights and protections as married couples. But when they are struck by tragedy, they are treated like second-class citizens.”

She urged people to sign a petition she had launched calling for a change in the rules, which had been signed by 2,348 people by yesterday morning and which can be found by going to www.change.org/p/dwp-access-to-support-for-unmarried-couples-with-children-who-s-partner-has-died?

l Friends and neighbours have also launched a fundraising drive for Laura, which had raised £1,472 by yesterday and is available at www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-laura-and-noah?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link-tip&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet