March 11, 2016 | Posted in blog, Family, Lifestyle

I am a member of an amazing group of South African moms in the UK – remarkable women who have proven time and time again that being complete strangers will never deter one from helping others in their darkest hours.
With most of us members in this group being expats, it’s hard enough raising children without the help of grandparents or family members less than and 11-hour flight away…

Loren Gordon is one of these members, with a tragic story:
Jonty was diagnosed with terminal cancer when Loren was 22 weeks pregnant, and their baby Shelby born in November last year (a precious gift after enduring two years of IVF)… The sad prognosis is that he is unlikely to make it to Christmas.

When we read of Loren Gordon’s heartbreaking story about her husband Jonty’s terminal diagnosis, the group once again rallied around to find ways to help them:
Another member, Gabi (who had never met Loren), set up a GOFUNDME PAGE in order to raise funds for anything the family may need – Loren is a teacher on maternity pay, whilst Jonty has became too ill to work.
Another fellow member, Taryn, contacted me enquiring about prices – to provide a keepsake of sorts for their baby girl, who is now 6 months old. Whilst I preferred to offer my services free of charge so that funds could be spent on more urgent things, plans are being made for the digital images to be made into keepsakes.

The shoot was slightly more challenging than my average family session, since Jonty was so weak. Whilst we wanted to capture memories for Shelby, we didn’t want to cause any strain, so we worked with the space and light available. Jonty took it in his stride, and went above and beyond to create some lovely images together.

GordonCollage1

We made sure we captured some important daddy-daughter moments: tiny feet and hands, giggles, eye-to-eye contact, and cuddles during feeding time.
Loren has made an extra effort to celebrate Father’s Day as well as Mother’s Day the next day – a bittersweet notion to consider.

GordonCollage2

If losing someone close to you doesn’t bear thinking about, please consider helping the Gordon family like so many others have – the GOFUNDME PAGE is currently sitting at over £3000!! These funds will be used for things that a lot of us take for granted: childcare when Loren returns to work full time, bridging the gap for bills and rent. They would love to help fly family over to visit, so if even one of those things is something you can help with, go on over and donate – it all adds up.

error: Content is protected !!
%d bloggers like this: