Emily’s last wish raises £360,000 for charity (From Echo)

Emily’s last wish raises £360,000 for charity

8:00am Monday 20th July 2009 in

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A BELOVED daughter’s last wish was honoured with a remembrance ball helping to raise more than £360,000 for a cancer charity.

Wickford girl Emily Begg died three years ago, at just 14 years old, after losing her battle with leukaemia, but it was her wish that parents Stuart and Colleen continued to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust to help other sufferers.

The family held a summer ball to raise money for the charity on what would have been Emily’s 17th birthday.

About 150 guests packed into Friern Manor Country Hotel, in Lower Dunton Road, Laindon, for the event.

Stuart, 56, of Alicia Walk, Shotgate, described the evening as an enormous success and said Emily would have been very pleased.

He said: “There is a great comfort in knowing we have followed Emily’s wish and achieved what she wanted.

“Before she died she asked us to live our lives in a positive way and we are trying to do just that.”

The night raised about £4,000, which will help to fund the new Teenage Cancer Unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, due to open late in 2010.

The Beggs have now raised a total of £360,000 for the new unit.

Colleen and Stuart were especially grateful to Sue Nicholls, who worked tirelessly to organise the event, and the Friern Manor Hotel for hosting the event.