Sarah Rose Bookey (nee Nicholls) passed away on 30 September 2019. 

Thanks to the excellent treatment she received via the NHS oncology centres in Birmingham (led by Dr Sarah Williams at City Hospital and later QE), Sarah was able to make the most of her periods of remission from the terminal ovarian cancer with which she had been diagnosed in 2011.

Sarah's 74 years on this earth were filled with abundant love and devotion to her family and friends. Her original, creative mind and open, warm, inquisitive approach characterised her relationships with everyone she encountered - friends, colleagues, acquaintances or total strangers!

From the outset of her professional life as a social worker in Lewisham in the 1970s to the bespoke training schemes she developed and managed for student care workers in 1990s Birmingham, Sarah touched the lives of many people over a nearly forty year career. She also found time to indulge and share with others her lifelong passions for literature, music and travel. 

The Bookey family are organising a Celebration of Life event for Sarah to be held in Birmingham later in the year. (Provisional date: Sunday 8 December).

Instead of flowers, Sarah requested that anybody wishing to make a donation in her memory direct their contribution to the Eve Brook Scholarship Fund. Having been the grateful recipient of full tuition and maintenance grants for under- and post-graduate study in the 1960s (a period when very few women went to university at all), Sarah carried forward with her a deep commitment to widening access to higher education, particularly for disadvantaged people.

ABOUT THE EVE BROOK SCHOLARSHIP FUND

The Eve Brook Scholarship Fund provides young people aged 16 to 25 who have been in care in Birmingham with grants, scholarships and bursaries supporting their higher education.

The Fund was founded in 1998 by Eve Brook, a former City councillor and Chair of Social Services in Birmingham, shortly before her death from cancer.  It's an independent charity that works closely with Birmingham City Council’s children’s services teams. 

Since its foundation, the Fund has given over 200 grants to young people studying everything from fashion, fine art and performance to counselling as well as traditional university subjects such as English, maths, engineering, social work and law. Increasingly the Fund supports students on postgraduate courses with a bursary, and has also given small grants for artists’ materials, specialist clothing, field trips, musical instruments, travel, childcare, computers and software. 

A general overview of the Fund's budget and turnover: every year there are approximately 10 beneficiaries of the Eve Brook Scholarship Fund. The total value of awards made by the Fund shared by these beneficiaries over a given year would amount to approximately £20,000. 

With your help we can provide more support to young care leavers in our local area. For more information, visit www.evebrookfund.org or click on the link in the top of this page.