Lisa Keech

Lisa Keech really has been the life and soul of this area.  Her person is larger than life and if you knew a even a little of her background, she has always been extraordinary in so many diverse ways.  From the day she and her family moved into the village she has been one of the great organisers and motivators of almost every event.  

I first  met and blipped Lisa, with our local butchers head firmly squashed to her breasts, dressed as Britannia and singing as only she can, for the Jubilee event.  Little did she know then that she would find a lump in those breasts little more than a month later ... She's been through gruelling times of chemotherapies, double mastectomy, believing the cancer had gone but, then it came back. 

The news didn't come through the grapevine.  Lisa wanted everyone to know from herself. She sat down and wrote an email which explained that there was no more that could be done, that she has ten months to live, two years if she is very lucky but, that there is so much to organise on the event list that she wants to be around to complete it. 

Today Lisa got on the stage at the  annual Music Festival,  She told everyone that although she stood before us with terminal cancer, she could still sing.  She thanked the locals for helping her, over the past few months, to raise well over £50,000 for Breast Cancer. (£45,000 were raised alone at a party she held in her garden recently.)  She wants to give something back for all those who have already died, paving the road for the treatments there are today, and hope to all who will be diagnosed in the future. 

Lisa has a wonderful voice and sing she did.  We all know that it's likely that this could be the last time we see her on that stage.  Lisa is not the person who likes a sob story.  She is alive now and intends to complete a bucket list she's compiled and to continue with all the activities and fund raising until she can no more.  

An interview was published in the Guardian a couple of days ago, You can read more about her story here, 

Why, this summer, I'll be writing letters to the grandchildren I'll never know.