********************EDIT********************

We have been overwhelmed by the response - we originally thought this would be a small event, local, and to share Victoria's kindness with people around the town we are from. We asked for £500 as it is the lowest amount you can ask for.....a few weeks in at we at at nearly £3K. So, after a rethink we want to push harder.....Victoria's birthday - March 23rd - is 1 year since we went into the first lockdown. The closure of groups, gyms, clubs, libraries etc has left people disconnected, lonely, and without their wellbeing routines. We all miss things - but imagine those things are your lifeline - like medicine, then you can't have them.

So let's push for more. Lets collect more cash. Spread the kindness further. Celebrate all those who have so sadly lost their lives to suicide since March 23rd last year. The plan is the same. But bigger. We will put together some stories if families would like us to and add them to a site that shows the people we have lost. That has ideas of how to be kind. Of how to stay safe.

ORIGINAL POST

On Christmas Eve 2020 we lost a super star.

Victoria Jayne Connolly - my sister. My heart. My soulmate. The good one.

Victoria ended her life after struggling for many years with serious mental health issues that I can only imagine. She battled for all of us. I wish her the peace she deserves.

Victoria was our daughter, granddaughter, step daughter, friend, sister, cousin, niece, godmother, auntie, bestie, soul sister and the heart of her friends and family. She loved, hard. To the moon. And was loved, greatly. Whether you knew her all your life - or just for 5 minutes on a bus, she made you feel connected, loved, special and cared for. She was also really fucking funny.

In her honor the family would like to create a day of kindness on her birthday, March 23rd. In lieu of flowers and cards we are asking for donations to fund us to go out and share her light and love with others. She believed in small, local giving and action- she stopped to chat to people, bought people coffee who couldn't buy their own, gave smiles to strangers, talked to old people on the bus, stuck her tongue out to young kids and laughed that wonderful laugh. On her birthday we will give flowers to old ladies, tell people they look beautiful, buy lunch and phone credit for people in need, take chocolates to frontline staff, buy the shopping of the person in front of us, tell a stressed out mum in town she is doing an amazing job, send someone a pizza, buy a kid a book.

All donations will fund these acts of kindness. We are also hoping to have some small cards printed that we can give away at the time of the act - these will have a positive affirmation and a picture of her.

If you have any memories or photos of Victoria please share them here or send them to me and I will add them to this page.

You can also join us on March 23rd in your own way. Let us know what you do.

Love x