Claire was a wonderful woman, a wonderful friend. She was warm, wise and kind. She was funny and creative and inspiring. You could trust her to tell you what you needed to know, even if it wasn't what you wanted to hear, and to do it gently, self-deprecatingly, humorously, and with love. 

 

Claire had cancer and she fought it with courage. True courage, because she knew she couldn't stop what it did to her body but she never let it vanquish her. She was determined to live every day she was given, to be there for her children, her family, her friends, as long as she could. She was her warm, wonderful, witty, selfless self right to the end. She would deny that she was brave, or amazing, or any of the things that she was. She touched so many lives, lives that will be poorer for the loss of her. 

 

Cancer took Claire from us. We can't get her back. But we're doing this in the hope that someday, nobody else will have to lose a friend to this horrible disease. No other children grow up without their mother, no other partners carry on alone. That no more wise, warm and wonderful women will be lost to the world too soon.