There’s less than a month to go until the Tesco Mum of the Year Awards 2014, and I can’t wait. Because, as much as the stories can break your heart, they also lift, and motivate, and inspire.
Like Charitable Mum of the Year LAURA YOUNG. When her middle daughter, Verity, was diagnosed with Lupus at just three years old, the family’s world was thrown into turmoil. But none more so than Verity’s – whose life became a distressing whirlwind of hospital visits and painful treatments. Too young to really understand why this was happening to her, she sometimes – and understandably – became angry and resentful.
Then Laura discovered that art was the perfect way for Verity to express and release all those bottled up emotions.
Just before Christmas 2007, there was another huge blow: doctors discovered a tumour in Verity’s abdomen. It was cancer. She fought hard, but two years later, with Mum and Dad by her side, Verity passed away. She was just eight years old.
At her funeral Laura and husband John held a collection, planning to donate the money to an art therapy organisation. When they discovered there wasn’t a dedicated charity, they set one up themselves in Verity’s memory.
The TEAPOT TRUST was up and running six months later. In just four years the charity has raised £300,000, and helped thousands of Scottish children to accept and cope with their chronic illness.
I think Verity would be very proud of her Mummy, don’t you?
