Dream come true.

She always found a baby to hold, even in Africa!

Last Wednesday would have been Mam's 50th birthday. She was not looking forward to being 50. When she turned 40 she was also not happy. Dad had booked a surprise limo to take us all to a show and she wouldn't get in it because she didn't want people to know she was 40. I remember standing in her room with her and the limo pulling up outside and all she said was 'that better not be for me,' and just continued to get ready.

Painting the teen girls toenails in a school in Uganda.

What did we do for her 50th birthday? Well dad decided to plan a show in the Olympia theater to continue raising funds for the the dream she said she had just before she died. She had just come back from Uganda, a place we had been twice as a family with the charity Zest4kidz, which helps sick and war effected children around the world. Mam came home from Uganda and told Dad, she would love if we could raise the money to build a rehabilitation home for the children in Uganda. She was really excited about it and then she passed away so suddenly. This gave Dad the drive to make her dream come true.

The cake stall at the book launch=€700

We took a donation at her funeral to start the ball rolling. €10,000 euro was donated by all of the amazing people who came to the service. Then my wonderful Auntie Karen wanted to do something for Mam. She wrote the cutest children's book and donated all of the money that was generated from the book to our cause. Myself and my friend baked about 500 cookies and 300 cupcakes for the book launch, Jonathon sold photographs, people made jams and Christmas cards and over €14,000 was raised on the night. We were nearly half way there after only 2 months! People continued to be so generous and the money continued to grow. So Dad wanted to plan something for her birthday to keep our mission going.

What a brilliant night. All of the acts donated their time for free, the Olympia theater didn't charge us, a motorbike was donated for the raffle, some well known names donated large sums of money and when it came to the end of the show, we were able to tell Stuy, the founder of the charity, that we had smashed our target and raised over €60,000. The Jean Carley Rehabilitation home will be built and we knew this for definite on her 50th birthday. Thank you so much to everyone who gave their time, money and love and helped Mam's dream come true.

I think this is how Mam would feel about knowing her dream will be a reality!

Joey x
Ps thanks to Uncle Keith for the photos of the show.