Story
Each individual lost to breast cancer is exactly that, like Anne they have touched people deeply in so many ways. With funding, research is increasing the life expectancy of those with Breast Cancer all the time. Please, for those women in the future, sponsor us as we walk to remember the life of Anne Tuckwell.
If you have more than eight female friends, then the likelihood is that at least one of them has had breast cancer. If you have forty female friends, current statistics show that at least one of them will die within 10 years from breast cancer. In fact it is rare to meet your thirties in the UK without losing at least one friend or family member to this disease.
In the communities of Hardwick and Whitchurch on Thames, that person was Anne Tuckwell who passed away in January this year. Anne was a vivacious, colourful and creative character who touched our lives in a variety of ways:
As an Artist: Anne was both a talented ceramicist and oil painter and auction will be held at and in aid of the Sue Ryder hospice on the 5th of September 2015. Many would say that her even greater talent was in teaching and curating art across a multitude of formats in order to make it accessible to all whether by curating at the Victoria and Albert or running art workshops in a garden centre for those with learning difficulties. For Anne art and life were synonymous and an acute aesthetic awareness infused her life and that of the people around her.
As a Friend: Life was never boring around Anne, life had to be experienced and enriched at every opportunity and she would take you with her for the ride. Even toward the end of her life when it became difficult for her to hide the pain, she continued to live her life in the most active way possible. She was an outrageous connoisseur of the finer things and as her appetite waned, she refused to eat anything but the best!
As a Mother: Some of us got to know Anne best as the Mum of Louis a child who has inherited his mother's lust for life and ferocious intelligence. He was a long awaited joy in Anne's life and became one the main reasons for her refusal to give up.
The lines from the Dylan Thomas poem (with a slight adaptation) 'Do not go gentle into this good night' often come to mind when Anne's later fight is remembered;
Do not go gentle into this good night
This Mum should burn and rave at the dying of the day
Rage, rage at the dying of the light.