Josie Wright

My exceptional Mum was a ray of sunshine and brought gladness to my heart when ever I saw her. A dear wife to my Dad Colin of 60 years and the very best kind of Mum to me and my sister Julie. She was a real character and was loved by everyone for her sunny disposition. She was so supportive, helped us in our gardens most weekends for 18 years and with our house renovations enjoying having a go at everything. We had such fun and jollity. She really enjoyed helping us to stack logs for the boiler, anything physical. She loved to start and finish a project in a day and was really happy when we had a good days work together and Dad drove them home through the Chatsworth estate where she hoped to see the deer. She spent many happy times watching the birds feeding and helped us with the annual bird count. She so enjoyed everything she did but her favourite past time was rambling, sometimes with walking groups in Sheffield or with Dad or us in Derbyshire, especially near a river and if she saw a Wren or Dipper.

She had a multi award winning allotment and was the president of the allotment society for many years and liked sharing her produce with others on open days or leaving surplus for neighbours to take what they wanted. She ran many fundraisers selling plants and flowers she had grown and cakes she had baked and claiming grants increasing the funds from around £40 to several thousand.

She was incredibly house proud and had weekly and monthly routines to make sure that everything always looked its best. The wider family enjoyed coffee mornings. She was a great cook and loved baking cakes that never lasted long!

She worked as a Home Help for much of her life and often went the extra mile staying on after her paid hours or calling in on her days off to deliver shopping. She even helped a young women who had suffered a stroke to walk again asking the family if she could rearrange the furniture to help with her home made physiotherapy sessions.

My beautiful Mum was diagnosed with Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma in February 2020. Mum was strong and fit from years of walking and gardening so she passed the fitness test with flying colours to qualify for the Whipple procedure, a huge operation at any age. She underwent surgery in March 2020 after decorating at home as she had planned. She had so much energy that we all struggled to keep up with her. She was like a pocket rocket!

She did amazingly well after her operation and recovered really quickly considering the scale of the surgery. She was back on her allotment guiding us as to what was needed in late March. She was so grateful that she had such a capable & experienced surgeon in Mr Al-Mukhtar who treated her like a member of his family. She never failed to amaze with her courage.

The average life expectancy with this cancer is 3 months after diagnosis. It lags behind all other cancers for funding and no real breakthroughs have been made in decades. We urgently need a break through.