Memory of Josie is as strong as ever

Feb 26 2008 by Ben Guy, The Journal

IT is exactly one year since Northumberland teenager Josie Grove lost her battle with leukaemia, but to her family her memory remains as strong as ever.

Josie, 16, of Corbridge, came to national attention after she gave up treatment for the disease so that she could spend the final few months of her life with her family.

Before she died, she also began an appeal in her name, to help raise money for young people across the country who found themselves in a similar situation. Today her family will be marking the anniversary at their home in Bangkok, Thailand, where they lived before Josie became ill and they moved to Corbridge.

Her father, Cliff, said: “You have really bad moments when the emotion just washes over you and you cannot control it.

“But you have to think of what has come out of it. There’s one thing that sticks in my head and that’s being able to use Josie’s charity to help every terminally ill child in the country – that will be her legacy.

“The way she handled herself in that situation was beyond inspirational. She was just fantastic and anybody would have been proud of her.”

The family – including Josie’s siblings Freddie, 15, Libby, 12, and Charlie, one – returned to Thailand because they still run a jewellery factory in the country, and will be marking the anniversary in a number of ways.

These will include releasing a number of fire candles into the air at their home with family and friends in the evening, and a memory day will also be held at Josie’s former school.

Jacqui Grove, Josie’s mum, said that although it had been difficult to leave their Corbridge home, it was important that the family were all together on the anniversary and moving back to Bangkok was the only way.

She said: “It is the first anniversary and the thing that I have found amazing is the speed with which the year has gone.

“When something like this happens, you imagine that time will stand still, but the year has raced by and that is because we have been so busy with the charity.

“It has kept Josie alive. In our hearts, we really feel that she has been with us the whole time.

“It feels like she has done the whole charity thing to help us – it has already done so much and it is all because of her setting it up.

“We are fortunate that something so positive has come from Josie’s death.

“For a child with so much potential, we feel that the charity is fulfilling that potential – it is because of her that it came about.

“I know that not everybody can find a reason for why these things happen but for us I feel that is why Josie was here.

“I feel very honoured that she came to us as a family and we were very privileged to have her.

“You have to keep thinking in that way – that we were lucky to have her, not unlucky to lose her, even though it was such a short time.”