Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

My daughter Sophie died just before Christmas last year at the age of 37

I want to fund raise for Core Arts because

• Sophie flourished at Core Arts
• where Community Building goes hand in hand with demolishing stigma around mental health and enabling artists to start where they are and to see where that will take them
• Core has many professional teachers and apart from art also offers opportunities for sports, music, IT,  gardening and more
• I would like Core Arts to continue to support many more people who face a mental health crisis to feel valued and included; to pursue their dreams whether that is in art or another field; and last but by no means least to find a place where they can participate in building lasting and true friendships and an open community

Sophie was above all else an artist. Her art came first to her and her passion for it enabled her to achieve highly, and as far as was humanly possible she left behind her a severe mental health diagnosis. 

Sophie let her portfolios speak for themselves and they gained her access to some of the most prestigious universities, i.e. Goldsmiths where she started a fine arts degree and St. Martin's (Now University of the Arts) where she completed a Graphic Design Degree. Just a couple of years ago she gained a MA in Art by Project (from Metropolitan University) where she specialised in public sculpture.

Sophie was a loving, thoughtful and loyal daughter, sister and friend. She never forgot a birthday and always helped us to celebrate with a beautiful gift which was either carefully chosen or often made by herself. Her very own sense of humour often had us in stitches (sometimes in a desperate way e.g. when she said something controversial and amended it to 'it was just a joke' and her lovable smile, celebratory, bold and a bit apologetic, would appear) and it included her ability to laugh at herself, too. 

She benefited from the Community at Core Arts and also deeply cared about how a mental health diagnosis impacted on others besides herself and it followed that she became a Trustee at Core Arts. Shortly before she died she initiated the 'Moving On' project which had as its aim to explore ways to move on into other and non mental health service user avenues as part of a person's recovery. I will admit that I was a very proud mum when she told me about this at the end of November last year.  She had recruited a group of people to come to the initial meeting which was to take place the day after she was admitted to hospital.

Before her admission into hospital Sophie had reached a point in her life where she was fully engaged in pursuing pottery and sculpture, studying maths and German for fun with her friends, engaging with the community at Core and importantly growing as a person who communicated and acted on her convictions. She also held a part-time job as a cleaner at Turning Earth, acknowledging the importance of the role of remunerated and valuable work in society and in a person's life.

Turning Earth is a place that helped her to nurture her lifelong ambition to produce beautiful pottery; and as Sophie would, she got into all the intricacies of glaze making, and using a variety of finishes and tools to achieve these. Only recently she was very happy and proud to take delivery of her own name stamp which you can see imprinted on her latest pottery.