Edith Oakley Death, Obituary – Today, we would like to take a moment to remember Edith Oakley, a dedicated volunteer who sadly passed away at the age of 103. After losing her son John to leukemia in 1959, Edith raised a total of almost exactly $250,000 for Blood Cancer UK during her lifetime. John passed away from the disease in 1959. Edith declared that she did not want any other mothers or fathers to go through the anguish that she had, and she resolved to devote the rest of her life to the cause of raising money for research into treatments for blood cancer.
Edith reflected on her time spent volunteering and related the story of how
she first began attempting to sell handmade aprons in order to raise money when she was honored with a Times Sternberg award at the age of 100. The ceremony took place in Downing Street. I’ve always had a lot of fun doing volunteer work, and during that time I’ve made a lot of new friends. But there have been times when it’s been a lot of work, especially with all of the knitting and sewing that we’ve done. To begin, I was so strapped for cash that I couldn’t even take the bus to the market to buy the fabric that I needed for the aprons. Because I couldn’t bring the materials back with me, I had to ask a friend to do it for me.
When I made my very first apron, Laurie helped me sell it by taking it to her place of employment. Then, with that money, we were able to buy the materials to make three aprons because we had enough. That’s how we originally went about doing things.” Edith’s pioneering courage and selfless efforts have, without a shadow of a doubt, helped ensure that other families won’t have to go through the same terrible loss that she did. During this difficult time, we are thinking of Edith’s family.
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