The Monica Walters Tribute Fund
On July 25th 2012 we lost the most inspirational woman in our lives, our mum, Monica Walters. Twenty One days earlier we found out that mum had breast cancer and it had spread to her lungs, bones, liver and brain. Despite this mum was positive, she told me that she didn’t want to upset anyone or cause anyone any trouble. My sister (who was 6 months pregnant at the time with mums longed for grandchild) and myself spent our time sitting quietly with mum during her final days. Mum passed away in our arms at home unexpectedly the day she was due to start chemotherapy. she didn’t have the chance to fight.
Our mum taught us that it’s a ‘wonderful world’ and encouraged us to live our dreams, see the world and do whatever would make us happy. On mums passing we decided to set up the ‘Wonderful World’ Just Giving page in her memory. As mum had died so suddenly we didn’t have any connections with a hospice or hospital. We therefore looked on Just Giving to see which cancer charity deserved our support. CVI stood out as being a small charity who really would put a high percentage of our money to good use. So we started our fund raising in November with the aim of raising £10,000. We have already hit £1,000 thanks to the support of our friends, with a Santa Run, family donating their Christmas present money and general kind donations. This year we have 10k runs, parachute jumps, Llama treks etc. planned.
Mum was such a kind lady and always had time for everyone, a smile on her face and she shone with positive energy. I wanted to share a special photo with you. The photo on the left was taken 4 weeks before mum passed away on her final holiday. Despite having terminal cancer mum insisted on climbing the mountain in Eze, South of France to see the view. It was not easy for her. This photograph gives me so much strength, if mum can do this with terminal cancer, think what we can do with our gift of health.
The photo above is of mum on her 60th birthday opening up a surprise day out, from Natalie, at a racetrack where she sped around in racing cars, including an Aston Martin, which she loved. Mum loved adventures and got much braver in later life.