Grieving parents turn to me for comfort
FAMILY DAYS: Looking back to 1993, TV legend Gloria Hunniford with her daughter Caron who died of breast cancer at just 41
her battle but not a day goes by when Gloria does not think of her.
Gloria said: “Someone asked me if I ever think of Caron. I said to them, ‘Are you mad? Of course I do. I think of Caron every day’. I’ll often think, ‘Caron would have loved this event, she would have loved that dress’. You can’t believe there’s that space at the table.
“Caron adored Christmas. The very first Christmas after Caron died, my friend Cliff Richard said to me, ‘How are you going to manage Christmas?’ And I just didn’t know.
“He looked me in the eye and said, ‘Did Caron like Christmas?’ I told him she absolutely loved it.
“So he said, ‘Why don’t you go bigger and better for Caron and her boys?’ And in that second he gave me the key to everything. Not just for Christmas, but also to anniversaries and birthdays.”
Gloria now runs The Caron Keating Foundation, which helps those battling cancer. She said: “I have a saying ‘People never die if they live on the lips of the living’.
“I always advise people to do something in the name of the person they’ve lost. It could be helping at your local hospice, driving people to hospital to get treatment. It makes you feel better because you think your loved one hasn’t died totally in vain.”
For more details visit caronkeating.org