I met Issy via twitter and her blog. I was in awe of her writing and her honesty. We quickly found that we had a mutual friend, Mandy, who was a model with her at the Breast Cancer Care London Fashion show. We then found out that we had another mutual twitter friend, Sam, who she knew from her youth and I was able to put them in touch with each other.
She was one of the first people I turned to when I was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in February 2014. She was amazing support via email, Twitter and Facebook. We have lost a great advocate for secondary breast cancer. She wanted people to know that people can ‘live with’ secondary breast cancer, have a career, enjoy life and it’s what I take from her own personal journey. Currently, I am still able to cycle, run & work hard but people still need to know that there is no cure and only treatment. People get very confused understanding this. Issy thought there should be more education regarding this and I totally agree. I know she wanted to do more but her priority was her family and friends.
The messages of remembrance on Twitter and Facebook said it all. Issy was a huge inspiration to me and many, many people. Her work ethic and determination in everything she did was unparalleled. I am sad that I didn’t meet her in person but it was great that I got to talk to her whilst we both recovered from chemo treatment (sat in our beds 200 miles apart) on the other end of the phone. We warmed to each other straight away and I felt I had known her forever. We were going to talk again to look into a plan to get the message about secondary breast cancer out but she was too ill and of course her priority had to change.
I’m so glad Issy was able to celebrate her 40th birthday and what a blast she had. Sadly a week later she died. My daughter’s birthday is on the 7th September, the same date as Issy’s so i’ll never forget her Birthday. She has touched so many lives and she will live on through everything she did.
Issy lived life to the full and made sure that she and her family and friends made fantastic memories and it was lovely that she shared the great times on social media for everyone to see. Her glass was never empty, she was always ready to fill it right back up…
The two photos in this blog are the ones I will always remember her by which really made me smile.
Issy ‘gotta lotta’ Clout was what I called her from our first tweets which made her laugh but I think is very, very apt.
Night and bless Chica x
