2:00pm Friday 10th September 2010
By Amanda Williams
“THEY are angels, every last one of them.”
That is Sonia Denmark’s verdict on staff at Oxford’s Michael Sobell House, who nursed her father and best friend until cancer claimed their lives within one week of each other.
Mrs Denmark’s father, Mick Trinder, from Blackbird Leys, died at the Churchill Hospital hospice on March 20 after battling with cancer of the oesophagus for several years.
Just seven days later, Mrs Denmark’s best friend, Karen Hoadley, of Berry Close, Greater Leys, lost her two-year fight with breast cancer on her 42nd birthday.
Now, Mrs Denmark, 39, is to hold a variety show to help the hospice which she said cared for ‘two of the most important people in my life’.
She said: “I just want to raise as much money as I can for the hospice.
“Nothing is ever too much for them and they make everyone feel so warm and welcome.”
Her father, who was 72 and worked at the car factory in Cowley, was known as Cadillac Mick’ on the estate thanks to his love of American cars.
She said: “He was just completely mad on old American cars. He had a cracking sense of humour too.
“He was the kind of dad who would give you anything.”
Mrs Denmark said she always knew her best friend put others before herself – but only realised how caring she was in her final days.
She said: “My father and Karen were in the hospice at the same time so I used to visit them together.
“One day when I went to visit he was fine and the next minute he was completely out of it. I was in pieces.
“Karen came and sat with me and gave me a hug while I cried. I said to her ‘I should be supporting you, you are the one who is ill.’ And she said to me ‘I’m your friend and right now you need me.’ “She made me promise to raise money for the hospice when she passed away and I’m honouring that promise.
“That was what she was like. Completely selfless.”
l The variety show will feature dance, music and song, and her own dance and baton troupe the Strawberry Fayre Majorettes, and is on at Oxford Town Hall on Saturday, September 24, from 7pm to 10pm.
Tickets are £6 for adults and £3 for the under-12s. Under-threes are free. For tickets, call Sobell House on 01865 857007.
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