Our cousin Claire Gordon was a film star in the 50s & 60s, labelled as "Britain's answer to Brigitte Bardot. She died of a brain tumour in 2015. A fraudster tried to hijack her Estate by destroying her (family) Will and creating a forgery. But Nicola investigated and went to the police. The fraudster was convicted of fraud in May 2018, and sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Claire never had a child, but adored her god-daughter Maria, and would certainly have left her enough money to follow in Claire's footsteps - Maria wants to go to drama school and be an actress like Claire. So we want to raise the money to pay for Maria's drama school, to honour the memory of our cousin Claire, and do what Claire would have done, i.e. making it possible for Maria to fulfil her dream, by going to drama school (when she is 18) and kick-starting her acting career.

The photo shows Claire holding her new baby god-daughter Maria (with absolute joy) around 2008. The cost of going to drama school (in 2018) for a 3-year acting course is nearly £30,000. Not only do we want to do for Maria, what the fraudster has prevented Claire from doing with what should have been a substantial legacy in the Will, but it also matters to Nicola personally because she wanted to be an actress from the age of 3, never changed her mind, and began her career at the age of 17, playing second juvenile lead in the West End Production of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." She knows what it's like to have acting 'in the blood' and what creativity means to someone born that way (like Claire, Nicola, and Maria's mother).

We also hate injustice and do not want to see Maria lose out (on the opportunity that Claire would have made possible for her), because of the criminal interference of a despicable and heartless fraudster, who put greed and selfishness before his past friendship with Claire. We didn't let him get away with it and now we want to put things right for Maria.