THE family of an art teacher who died from cancer will perform this year's Light Up A Life switch-on for Wirral Hospice St John's.
Kate McMahon, who lived in Willaston, was cared for at the hospice and passed away in 2023. Husband George and their daughters Sophie, Emily and Megan will switch on the lights in her memory during the ceremony in the hospice gardens on Sunday, December 8, which starts at 5.30pm.
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Looking forward to the event, which is now in its 28th year, George said: "We all miss Kate so dearly. Light up a Life is such a special commemoration, and she would be absolutely delighted that our girls and I are switching on the 2024 lights in her memory".
Bruno Mars was on the main stage that weekend and George can't confirm, or deny, that Bruno’s song Marry You became subliminally lodged in their minds.
It may have because, in 2013, George and Kate were married.
And the stars did align because another song of Bruno's, Just the Way You Are, was their wedding song.
A year or so later, twins Sophie and Emily were born and, by 2016, baby Megan came along.
Their family was complete although with young children it obviously meant less festival time for Kate and George.
Their life proceeded normally as the girls grew to school age. There were family days out and holidays.
It was during the pandemic when Kate, a secondary school art teacher by profession, began having back pain which was not being helped by painkillers.
She was sent for X-Rays and it was on New Year's Eve 2020 that she received the news that there was a secondary cancer in her spine.
Further tests revealed the primary diagnosis was lung cancer and it was at stage four. Devastating news, but Kate and George resolved to try and keep life as normal as possible for Sophie, Emily and Megan.
Periods of chemotherapy and immunotherapy followed and Kate also volunteered to be part of a trial for a new drug treatment.
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At the hospice, as an outpatient, appointments with Dr Richard Latten for symptom control and Dr Andy Jones for pain management helped Kate to live as well as possible with her illness. Complementary therapy massages also gave welcome respite and relief.
After living with her cancer for two and a half years, Kate was to spend her final days on the hospice’s inpatient ward.
George told us that she felt so well looked after at the hospice and the full team of doctors, nurses, healthcare assistant’s, caterers, cleaners and volunteers, were just magnificent.
Kate passed away peacefully on May 22 last year.
Their children, Sophie, Emily and Megan, have been attending activity-based sessions with the hospice's children and young person's practitioner, Annmarie, during Kate’s illness and since she died, to allow them sensitively and appropriately, the space to open-up about their own feelings.
Now, everyone at the hospice is so grateful that George, alongside Sophie, Emily and Megan, have agreed to perform the lights switch-on December 8.
This will signal the annual commemorations when 10,000 lights will shine out brilliantly from the trees and buildings surrounding the hospice each evening in the run up to and throughout Christmas Time.
George said: "Kate was so very well supported by the hospice team. She adored them all.
"We were also very grateful for the support of doctors, nurses, complementary therapists and of the hospice’s children and young person’s practitioner, Annmarie, who deserves a special mention for the help she has given to Sophie, Emily and Megan.
"Our thoughts will always be for our precious Kate and with everyone who will be remembering their own missed loved ones through Light up a Life.”
People will start arriving from around 4pm to browse fundraising stalls, have some tea, coffee, cake and other refreshments, to gather their personal thoughts, visit the books of honour and to find a position in readiness for the switch on service at 5.30pm.
To sponsor a light for Light up a Life, call 0151 343 0778 or visit www.wirralhospice.org/lightupalife to make a donation online
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