...so Nat and I were in the Wharf – yes I know it sounds unlikely but there you have it…in the pub! And she said that she’d been thinking about Andrea – well obviously I had because – you know – Andrea was, still is, the love of my life.

And says she (Nat that is) she’d been wondering about doing something to fund raise in her (Andrea that is) name. Which was a coincidence, says I, because – well – so had I.

And so we have this…

The idea is to make some money in Andrea’s name for things she would have approved of – and maybe in ways she’d have approved of too.

Those who knew Andrea know that she loved all things sparkly; and she loved terrible TV and that dancing programme! She loved wine (so sparkling wine was a winner); she also loved dark beer, and a gin and tonic; and pretty much all things purple! She loved the music of Bon Jovi – and to be honest she kinda loved the guy himself. Some crushes last a lifetime I guess. She loved her rugby and the Tigers – yeah, so that was probably on me. She loved animals – say hi to Talisker, Welly and Rippers everyone – they miss her too, believe me. She loved hill walking – well she had a sort of love/hate relationship with it to be honest – but love definitely figured somewhere. She loved being on holiday…camping in France (so err – wine – and food) and Egypt and Greece; and best of all – New Zealand (so rugby and wine and food and even some walking) – and hold on to that one folks. And she loved her friends and she loved me – for some reason I could never quite work out.

Losing her has been, and still is, the hardest, worst thing that has ever happened to me. I miss her more than it’s possible to say. And know lots of other people who’ve told me that they miss her too – which to be honest just makes me cry – but it also makes me feel good to know how special she was to so many people.

Everyone knows that Andrea lost her brief and brutally unfair battel with cancer – complications arising from Metastatic Melanoma to be precise – on the 7th June 2019. Her death was sudden and terrible and cruel and it broke my heart. One day she was there and brave and fighting…and the next…

Break for lalochezia…

Most people who knew my Brown Eyed Girl will remember her smile and her laugh and they’ll remember how supportive and generous she was with her time – and how great she was at organising people.

Which all brings me back to where I started…in the Wharf…

It would be good, says I (or was it Nat maybe – we’d been there a while by then – I know! Unbelievable!) to maybe raise some money for good causes in Andrea’s name – like Cancer Research – so maybe no-one else has to go through what she went through…and Kiwis (remember – New Zealand and animals?) She loved Kiwis…and Kakapos and she hated the thought that they were endangered. Those of you unfortunate enough to follow me on Instagram will have seen my constant churn of Kiwi and Kakapo posts. Andrea hated the thought that any species might be extinguished but she was also a practical girl and she’d know that we can’t encompass every endangered species – not even every endangered species in NZ – so we’ve had to settle on those two – but hey – if you’ve got a personal favourite – don’t stint on supporting that on our part. She wouldn’t want that.

So, there we go – this was Nat’s and my idea to do something good in Andrea’s memory: we, and anyone else who feels willing, do stuff – some of it stupid – some cool – and people give us money for our three causes.

Please join us in making this work. We need volunteers to get purple heart tattoos, shave their heads, walk up mountains and eat and drink and make merry – amongst any number of other variably dumb ideas that anyone might come up with – and if you don’t want to join in with any of this – well please, please, please put your hands in your pockets.

So do it for Andrea…because you loved her…please?