Claire's Story

Being brought up on one of Britain’s most deprived councils estates certainly had its trials and tribulations; however the strong sense of community and belonging laid the foundations for my empathy and consideration towards others and their situations later on in life.

Moving to York with my family in early 1986 certainly changed my life’s path for the better! My mum and dad bought their first house and with that came a more settled environment, followed then with a natural progression of school college and work.

I met my husband, Billy, in 1994 and since then we’ve gone on to have beautiful children and grandchildren.

The bliss was short-lived when in 2005 we lost my beautiful mum aged just 60 to pancreatic cancer. This was quickly followed with Billy’s brother Eddie, who was also taken as a result of cancer.

A few years later we lost our nephew to an unfortunate occurrence outside a night club, where one moment of madness had such a devastating effect. To add to this, the following year my handsome brother was attacked and murdered on the streets of London. Shocking!

All this rocketed me into years of post-traumatic stress and years of battling with severe health & anxiety, which I am still battling to this day.

I had no idea in the early days that fate was behind the scenes mapping our future and planning ahead.

During lockdown i was being treated for an infection which subsequently turned out to be stage 4 breast cancer. After a mastectomy and chemotherapy i am on life long medication called Phesgo. This should hopefully keep me well and able to help other ladies going through the same experience as myself.

Libby, my eldest daughter, joined a dance club in York called ’68 Club’ which is run by an amazing lady called Margret. This is where Libby & Emily first met and where their friendship blossomed and remained solid, until brave Emily lost her courageous battle to brain cancer.

Jo and I have also created a tiny bit of mischief in our time together too – so we’re no angels, but it’s all fun.

The mutual trauma throughout our lives coupled with our sense of humour seems to push each other on. We try to make the best of bad situations so once we lost the beautiful Emily, I was honoured – really honoured to get a call from Jo asking me to come on board with Warpaint.

This is now the next chapter in our lives and we are hoping to reach out to others who may be going through what we’ve been through, or similar and simply offering to be there helping to remove the shame and stigma from cancer related illnesses.

As Jo always says, we cannot change your journey, but we can be there with you, creating beautiful clothing for the warrior within us all.

Wise words really…