I've raised £3000 to Help Pay for Funeral Costs
Organised by Ashley Preston
Story
Joanne Mickaela Rose Mather
Jo passed away on the morning of Tuesday 19th June 2018 at approx 4am. She was in the Accident and Emergency Dept. at the Princess Margaret Hospital in the Bahamas.
The family are still awaiting exact details of Jo's death from the Coroner in the Bahamas. They have been liaising with a family friend, who has been helping with the funeral arrangements and dealing with the officialities.
Jo had no provision for any funeral costs, so the family are looking for support.
(...please see update below)
Joanne had been living in the Bahamas for several years, after originally leaving the UK to live in Spain. She had been back to the UK several times, including a stint in 2012-2013, but returned to the Bahmas with her youngest daughter Tegan.
Things were not always rosy in the Bahamas, and Joanne had suffered from alcohol addiction. She had visited a rehabilitation centre on more than one occasion.
Tegan returned to the UK to live with her Dad in 2016 after conditions became worse living with Jo. The girls had been in contact with their Mum quite regularly since then.
Several people tried unsuccessfully to help Jo get back to the UK. She was known to the British Embassy and the British Honorary Consul, who identified Jo's body after her death. The British Honorary Consul had attempted to get Jo back to the UK (when Jo was still alive), but to no avail.
Joanne passed away from complications caused by Cirrhosis of the Liver, after being taken to the the Princess Margaret Hospital shortly before her death.
A family friend based out there, who tried to help identify the body, made the following comment in a message to the family. This was after the British Honorary Consul had visited and confirmed that she had identified Jo as being the deceased.
The Hospital told her that Jo came in in very bad shape, emaciated and very weak.
The picture above was taken quite a bit before she passed, and it's clear she was a shadow of her former self. Things got worse in the months following this photo being taken.
After the post mortem, Jo's body was released from the hospital and was taken to the Legacy Funeral Home pending cremation.
I will post details of the fiances. The target amount is probably slightly higher than the Legacy Funeral Home fees, after foreign exchange conversion, PayPal fees and Just Giving fees. However, if there is any surplus, we hope to give some to the rehab facility that cared for Jo.
