Posted on

Open Water Sponsored Swimming

Team Jess is in full flow with fundraising and today sees another venture take the plunge in raising funds in memory of Jess.

On 5 September, one of Jess’ Grandads, Brian, will be swimming the full length of Coniston Water which is in excess of 5 miles! Open water swimming , as anyone who’s had a go knows, is no easy undertaking, so he really is jumping in at the deep end! What’s more, if COVID 19 means the organised event is cancelled, he’s planning to swim the same distance in a local lake instead. If you want to support Brian in his fundraising for Children with Cancer UK, or read more of his story, you can click here.

Posted on

School Friends Making Positive Memories


Little did I know it (until now!), but since Christmas, one of Jess’ school friends and her sister have been busy raising money in memory of Jess in all sorts of inventive ways, determined to channel sadness into making a difference. For example, at Christmas, they made and sold crafts and donated the proceeds directly to Candlelighters in Jessica’s memory and they’ve recently made crayons for Isla to sell at school. Furthermore their Dad kindly donated £26 directly to Candlelighters- £1 to represent every mile of the London Marathon he would have run had the event not been cancelled, meaning he had to do a shorter local run instead. What inventive ideas. Thank you! 

This isn’t the first time that school friends have  gone the extra mile (in some cases literally) to make memories whilst raising funds at the same time. In October last year, two of Jess’ school friends, Billy and Charlie, did the Leeds Abbey Junior Dash in memory or Jess. The fantastic £120 that they raised was donated to Candlelighters together with the funeral fundraising. Another pair of superstars, thank you!

Continue reading “School Friends Making Positive Memories”
Posted on

Team Jess Anthem

I couldn’t believe it when I logged on to my emails to find a ‘Team Jess’ running track in my inbox, written and performed by my very talented colleague and friend Trevor, with backing vocals from his wife and daughter too! Wow! Whilst not his normal style (this is not Trev’s first performing venture!) the quick beat will help me keep going when the going gets tough… especially round those hills in Sheffield! Thanks Trev, you’re a legend!

Posted on

Super Super Smashing

One of my favourite Jess memories was how everything was ‘super….’. “I’m super super super excited”, “It would be super super good if….”. It was possibly the most over used adverb in our house! So it only seems right to label our latest achievement as Jess would: super super smashing!
In only 5 days we’ve smashed our target and raised over £3k😀. I am bursting with pride and know just how valuable this will be to Children with Cancer UK.
Amazing as this is, Jess also liked to push the boundaries, so we’ve decided to keep going and see what more we can raise for a fantastic cause… or should I say super!

Posted on

Amazing Progress!

We’re almost at our target! And so what better way to celebrate than with one of Jess’ favourites things- the classic ‘Dab’!

Massive thank you to all those who have sponsored us so far! 😀

Posted on

Fundraising In Full Bloom

Just like my beautiful ‘Jessica Roses’, which are growing at an alarming rate of knots in the garden, our fundraising is in full bloom! I woke to a lovely figure of over £2,000 on the current JustGiving page, which is just incredible given we’ve only been raising for the last 36 hours. 😀 Team Jess are in full training mode now (although we are hoping for swift healing of various knee and toe injuries – no pun intended!), and even saw some keen team members training late last night and early this morning – that is dedication 😀

Posted on

We’re Growing In Numbers!

Well after an exceptionally great start, we’re already at £1,000! I’m blown away, speechless and incredibly thankful. And as if that wasn’t good enough, a couple have people have been in touch to ask if they can join Team Jess, as well as to talk about other fundraising ventures in memory of Jess …..hopefully more to follow on this second point soon 😀

Posted on

Off to a Flying Start!

Delighted to have raised over £500 in the first couple of hours of launching Team Jess! 😀 All the support is going to be a massive support to Children with Cancer UK and means so much to me!