The foundation was established in honour of Crystal Lee Johnson who passed away in January 2019 at age 19 from Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumour.

The foundation's bereavement counsellor Issy Siebel has worked in social work and palliative care in Warrnambool and Melbourne and has close ties with Crystal and her family.

"I was a volunteer with hospice and carer for Crystal in a small way," Ms Siebel said. "I tried to do practical things for the family like cook dinner or leave some takeaway at the front door."

With qualifications from the Grief Education Centre at Monash Medical Centre and Latrobe University, Ms Siebel will step out of retirement to deliver the service.

"I did some research and found there was no specific grief counselling services from Geelong to the South Australian border," she said.

"These sessions are for anyone who is bereaved from the loss of a loved one and it doesn't necessarily have to be recent.

"Grief doesn't come by itself, there can be a lot of other feelings involved. It's like a filing cabinet, it's all in there and it gets shaken around."

Crystal's mother and founder of the foundation Jo Sinclair is hopeful the service will also help families and young people navigate difficult cancer and leukemia diagnoses.

"The direction change came from community feedback and we've done a fair bit of research through the anti-cancer council," Ms Sinclair said.

"In the south-west region, the number of young people who have received a cancer diagnosis in the past five year is 1100. That is a large number and we thought we should spread our wings and support anyone aged 13-24 and their families where a cancer diagnosis has been given.

"Bereavement counselling is a very important part of grief and our service is open to people of all ages. It's important to have a space to talk after losing someone.

"It's not normal to lose a young person, it's horrific and there should be proper support and we want to give that."

The bereavement service will begin when the Crystal Lee Foundation finds suitable professionals rooms.

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