Page 339 - She's One Crazy Lady!

further treatment. With dates for follow-up appointments in her diary, Marilyn was able to carry on with her life, albeit it at a slower pace. I know Crazy Hats did help her enormously and she often said she would not have coped as well as she did without us – she also said that now being a member of ‘the exclusive club’, she had more empathy and understanding of other breast cancer patients.
Selfishly, for me, it was a very dark
time, having to come to terms with
losing Mum, caring for Marilyn and
running Crazy Hats – although, as they did for Marilyn, the whole team rallied round and were so supportive. Life went on!
So how did ‘we’ raise funds?
In other chapters you will have already read what some people did to raise funds and I have mentioned a few of the events we, as a Charity, organised. Here are more examples...
SKYDIVING:
In 2004 we were introduced to Tingdene Homes in Wellingborough who were involved in many community projects that involved building schools, Community Centres, and Heritage Centres. They had a history of getting involved with direct charity fundraising by organising and taking part in many marathons, cycle rides, trekking to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and raising thousands of pounds. The ‘Tingdene Ladies’ were always part of these activities but wanted to aspire to different heights by taking on the challenge of (sponsored) tandem skydiving as breast cancer was something close to their hearts. On September 17th eleven employees, together with Evening Telegraph reporter, Stephanie Weaver, took to the skies at Sibson Airfield and threw themselves out of a plane – all safely landing! I had signed up to do it (!!) but had to pull out as I’d recently had corrective reconstruction surgery and had no desire to burst my stitches!
Chairman, Jim Gibbard, proudly presented Crazy Hats with an incredible £10,000 – his motto of life being: “If you want something to happen, don’t leave it to others, JUST DO IT!”
Tingdene Homes continued with their support for several years and it was where we met Nicky Titmuss, daughter of Liz and Pete Titmuss that ran the Fir Tree Restaurant in Wellingborough many years before. Mum and Dad knew the family well – probably by supplying them with fruit and veg. Nicky’s husband worked at Tingdene – Nicky worked
“I had signed up to do it (!!) but had to pull out as I’d recently had corrective reconstruction surgery and had no desire to burst my stitches!
”
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