Sharon Fox

Sarahs Legacy

Fundraising for Tamworth Wellbeing and Cancer Support Centre
£2,105
raised of £2,000 target
by 109 supporters
Donations cannot currently be made to this page
In memory of Sarah Dawes { Sarahs Legacy }
We support people, young and old to cope with cancer and other illnesses

Story

Thanks for taking the time to visit Sarahs Legacy JustGiving page.

Sarah Hicks was a beautiful young mum who had her whole life ahead of her when her whole world got turned upside down with a bowel cancer diagnosis.

Sarah like many others combined working life with motherhood and many hospital visits. Her fight was admirable, never complaining and always thinking of others especially her family and loved ones.

In July 2013 Sarahs partner Mark proposed, with sarahs health as priority this left little time / finances to organise a wedding. thats when after a heartfelt call from Marks Mum Jackie, I  stepped in and appealed to the community for help and in just hours a whole dream wedding was organised. Sadly just a couple of weeks after Sarah and Marks wedding Sarah passed away.

With Marks agreement I have set up Sarah's legacy where a savings scheme will be in place within the registered charity for 'exceptional circumstances' whereby Sarah will continue to inspire and help others in her sleeping place.

You can help too by donating here in sarahs memory and if you do know sarah and mark or me, you can leave a lovely message of support with your contribution. It means such a lot.

Mark Writes.

My wife Sarah used to follow Sharon’s column in or local newspaper when she was writing about her experiences with breast cancer. In May of 2010 we had the devastating news that Sarah had developed Bowel cancer which had already spread to her lungs and was at stage 4 and beyond surgery. She started chemo therapy and had 30+ cycles over 3 years, during this time she managed to keep down a job (full time for the first year) run our home and very demanding family and ensure that our kids (we have 5 boys between us) were spotless every day and at school on time. During this time Sarah had started to go to some of Sharon’s groups, this was sometime she did under duress as anyone that knows Sarah will know she is an extremely private person who found it difficult to talk about her condition. We also attended some of Sharon’s family messy time family functions which were a really good meeting place for families affected by this disgraceful disease.

In February of this year we had the devastating news that Sarah’s latest treatment wasn’t working and that there were no conventional treatment options available. She was referred to the Royal Marsden in London to undergo a phase 1 trial, which after a month proved was withdrawn as the treatment was having no positive effect and was making her physically worse with the side effects.

About 6 weeks ago now I plucked up the courage to ask Sarah to marry me, to which she said yes without hesitation and said she had been waiting for me to ask her for years. (this broke my heart and is another story). She told me that she wanted a very quiet private ceremony or her myself and our 6 year old son Tristan). She mentioned that we might be able to ask Sharon to supply a wedding dress as Sarah new she had some in her centre in Tamworth. On the day she was going to go and do this she didn’t have it in her to phone Sharon and we were going to Derby hospital (she was having radiotherapy for pain relief at this point. Fortunately my mom took the bull by the horns and contacted Sharon on our behalf and told her what we were doing and asked about the dress and also informed her of the secrecy of the project.

3 hours later I was sitting in Derby Hospital waiting for a prescription when I got a text from Sharon basically saying how she believed Sarah to be an inspiration to her and how she wanted Sarah to have a day as a Princess the text went on outlining that she had organised the following:-
A wedding dress for Sarah
Shoes for Sarah
Suits for myself and Tristan
Wedding rings
Venue (Marston Farm Hotel in Bodymore Heath, very nice venue) inc overnight stay and evening meal and breakfast
Car to venue
Flowers
Cake
Make up for Sarah by Estee Lauder makeup artist
Hair and nails for Sarah
Photographer (see attached sample of 180 beautiful photographs taken on the day.
Oh and wedding planner (Sharon)

People in the hospital must have thought I was mad I think I let out some sort of loud squeal as I started crying.
Sarah couldn’t believe it either. We obviously accepted this unbelievable gift of kindness.
Sharon managed to organised the whole thing in 8 days and when the day came (06/08/2013) it was every bit the fairy-tale that Sarah deserved she had managed to get the whole thing goods and services donated through her charity. To top it all the next day she had organised for us to go to Drayton Manor Park for an overnight stay and a fantastic birthday cake for our little boy, we had a fabulous day with all our family.
Sharon provided us with the most magical 2 days of our lives and I would like people to know what she did.
Sadly my wife passed away on the 21st of August after a courageous battle.
We are all devastated from the loss but without the help of Sharon and her band of volunteers Sarah would not have had her day as a Princess and I may not have had a wife.

Sarah’s funeral was held on 4/9/2013 at Polesworth Abbey, she went on her final journey wearing the lovely wedding dress that Sharon got donated for her, she is without doubt the most incredible selfless inspirational human being I have ever had the pleasure to meet.. 

If you would like to know more about our charity our website is 

www.sharonfoxcancercentre.org.uk

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About the charity

Tamworth Wellbeing and Cancer Support Centre offers free support and therapies to clients, families and carers. Our mission is to be recognised as the community's Centre of choice in Tamworth for wellbeing and complementary support. The needs of clients are our top priority.

Donation summary

Total raised
£2,104.99
+ £474.00 Gift Aid
Online donations
£2,104.99
Offline donations
£0.00

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