Dear friends

I have set up this page after discussion with S, so it is with her awareness and agreement. Speaking for myself, I really wanted to find some way to support S and family with being able to make the very most of the time they have together, and to continue to make some happy memories. There are of course lots of practical ways we friends can help with this but as someone who lives further away, it's difficult to get involved in the day to day stuff. This page provides another option of a way to provide support.

S felt it was important for people to know the following things (over to S - much more eloquent than me!)...

"This not for essential living. We still have the same salary as before - we can still afford our bills, running a car, normal life. And it's also not because I've somehow find some miracle, expensive cure.

This would be because there are things that we are doing in a condensed way to give myself, T and A an enhanced quality of life - things that are in many ways self-indulgent.

It's things like paying for photography sessions, prints, photo books; buying presents and clothes for A to open later on; maybe a night away for T and I; a date night or meal out with friends; clothes, make-up and hair treats for me; massages/facials; car-parking costs not just for the hospital which we are trying to see if we can get help for through Macmillan, but to make trips to the shops, cafés, playgroups more feasible. It might also be about making childcare more possible, getting our new house into a home for T and A. It may also be that it helps to pay for the costs of the funeral - especially if I want a hand in planning what that is going to be.

In between the crap it's lovely to have a meal or talk to family photographers, book our wedding etc. It does actually make things better."