JACKIE Lewis from Newport is a St David’s Hospice Care fundraiser.

After losing her son Steven Lewis to stomach cancer on December 21, 2011, Mrs Lewis reached her target of raising £33,3333.33 for the hospice which cared for him and is now on her way to a new target of £44,444.44.

St David’s Hospice provides hospice care to over 2000 people with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

My mum

My first photograph is of my mother Olivia Ingham and was taken on Mother’s Day 2015 at Caerleon House Nursing Home.

She is just one month away now from her 96th birthday and just over 18 months ago we didn’t think she would ever see this birthday.

Following two operations for broken hips after falling, she was unable to walk and was very poorly.

My mother lived alone until then and lived a very active life until her early 90s but following her falls she can no longer live at home and is now in the nursing home. We never thought that she would ever look like this again and regain her sense of humour.

It is thanks to the care she is receiving and her natural resilience that I now feel I have my mother back.

Not only is she back, she is really looking forward to the birth of her first great grandchild.

Fundraising reception

Following the passing of our 31-year-old Son Steve to stomach cancer, I decided with the help of four friends to begin to fundraise for St David’s Hospice Care.

Through the at home hospice service, Steve was able to live the last three weeks of his life as he wished and later I was able to have bereavement counselling.

Last year we were invited to St David’s Hospice at Blackett Avenue to a special reception held to celebrate our fundraising achievement, reaching our target of £25,000.

We also unveiled a special Lutyens bench that our donations had funded.

Together with Sue Murphy, Mo Pidgeon, Anita Small and Gill Shaw, I celebrated with the St David’s staff and a cross section of people who had helped us to reach this target.

It was an amazing day and one that I never, ever dreamt would happen.

My four friends and I took on a walk in 2012 that had been cancelled and hoped to raise around £250.

Now here we were two years later celebrating not £250 but £25,000 and feeling very proud and more determined than ever to carry on fundraising for St David’s Hospice Care.

Fundraising event

This photograph is just one of the events that helped us to reach our £25,000 in 2014 for St David’s Hospice Care and personally meant the most to me.

Following a news item that celebrities were trying to raise awareness of the importance of swimming for children, I had one of my fundraising ‘ideas’.

Without thought of how or what the outcome would be, I decided there and then that a swimming event themed around Star Wars in memory of Steve would be very appropriate.

Steve worked in leisure all his life and taught thousands of children to swim and was also passionate about Star Wars.

Life is not as easy as that and this event was the one that was nearly cancelled due to lack of support.

What I didn’t realise was the full extent of the support for our fundraising and the memories of Steve.

So many people who worked with Steve, friends of his and supporters of our fundraising rallied around and more than helped to get this one off the ground.

To see this message overlooking the whole event gave me the most amazing feeling and we are now preparing to run our third it’s a Knockout Event on September 6 at NISV.

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Milestone Birthday

Finding it increasingly difficult to choose the ultimate birthday present for their Dad’s 70th birthday, Steven and Matthew decided to treat my husband to a trip in a hot air balloon.

Unlike me who would have been horrified he was thrilled to bits and waited … and waited … and waited for the weather to provide the perfect conditions for him to use his voucher.

This photograph was taken just outside Usk before he realised his dream and soared above us to take in the beautiful landscape below.

We had a wonderful afternoon and one that I treasure more dearly because Steve is no longer with us to celebrate those milestone birthdays.

Celebration

In 2012 when our son Matt told us he was seeing someone, we were obviously happy and when we met Clair we were very happy. We all got on really well right from the first meeting and now just over three years down the line, things have moved on quite a bit. They have their first home together with Chloe, became engaged last year and we are expecting our new grandchild any day now.

I think we are now beyond happy and cannot wait to see whether the baby will be a boy or a girl.

The photograph was taken at Rodney Parade where we held a fundraising disco/auction nearly three years ago.

I love this photograph because it highlights how happy they were.

Maybe that was because they were looking with enthusiasm even then to the future. Looking at where they are now, we are very proud of both of them and thankful for the joy they bring into our lives every day.