"read and listen and talk and write and draw and make music"

It's hard to begin describing Jessica Fairclough; just know that inspirational doesn't even cover it. Lucy used to look after her when her mum brought her to work as a cheeky freckle faced 11 year old, and Lucy even let her record the cinema listings once (cheers for keeping schtum on that one Jess!). She was the most amazing human being who faced an extremely rare form of cancer with the kind of positivity and maturity usually seen in the old and wise. She had just turned 18 when she became the brightest star in the sky. When she found out she only had weeks to live, she wrote a stream of consciousness of things that were important to her - the above quote has stuck with us as a mantra for life. 

When Jess completed her first round of chemo, her parents asked what she would like - a shopping trip, a fancy meal, anything in the world... and Jess asked for enough money to donate to the Whitechapel centre so that a homeless person could have a bed and food for the night. This is a just tiny snapshot of the awesome person this kid was.

So we are taking a leaf out of Jess' book. We often feel that wedding favours can be a little tokenistic and end up being a lot of money spent on not much at all, so we are donating to CLIC Sargent on behalf of every day guest at our wedding. We are also telling a little bit of Jess' story to our guests in the hope that she will inspire them to donate too; and to do some of the things Jess thought were the most important things in life. We are taking a little bit of Jess' view on life with us as we begin our journey as a married couple.

CLIC Sargent are an amazing charity, and they did so much to help Jess and her family throughout what was undoubtedly the most hellish year of their lives. CLIC gave Jess' parents such support, opened doors for Jess to access the things that gave her light in the darkest times. Their work is invaluable and every penny counts. 

Hopefully you have arrived here because you read all about this little superstar on the card in your favour box, if so please let us say a big THANK YOU!

Lucy & Michael xxx

***

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.