Judy was a fiercely bright, quietly impactful, very kind and thoughtful member of the Eve team for two decades. We honour and celebrate her huge personal impact on our mission.
A Cambridge graduate, psychotherapist, former teacher, charity trustee and committee member, Judy made a huge difference. She was a proud parent and involved grandparent. And she was great fun.
Judy was a formidable champion of women’s health issues, advocating for the power of high quality health education (She was ever the educationalist from her years in teaching and through her support for dyslexia charities – another issue which she did so much to support). She was passionately convinced of the need for investing in world-class medical research in cancer prevention.
Judy was one of the original members of Eve’s ‘500 Club’ which focused on raising funds to start an ovarian cancer screening trial that over the years grew into the biggest international screening trial on any disease issue.
When Judy became an events committee organizer, her husband Jonathan supported her through many events and also became a valued friend of The Eve Appeal. Judy’s convening powers were like no other and included her being part of our Art4Eve programme and a regular at our annual outdoor clay shooting event (she was a terrible shot and the best sport!). In 2015 she took up the role of Trustee and Board member for the charity.
Judy made every person feel better about themselves. She authentically cared about the issues, the team, the researchers (she worried a great deal about making sure the clinical researchers we funded felt supported to do both sides of their jobs) and the patients and families we work with. She was a huge support to me in a very pressured charity CEO role, through the uncertainties and challenges of research funding, a global pandemic and the economic downturn.
My last conversation with Judy was a few months ago at a birthday party. She was impressed that I was the only person there wearing converse trainers (they were sequined ones!). She wished she hadn’t been wearing heels so she could dance as much as she wanted to.
I hope she’s dancing now. And with Jonathan of course.
As their children have so movingly said, they are shouldering unimaginable grief, their only comfort that their inspirational parents, Judy and Jonathan (together for five decades) are still together now.