Crawley family raising money for memorial bench for their mum left 'incredibly touched' by response

Gill Garrod died last year and her four children Ben, Tony Jack and Brittany wanted to honour her with the bench to create a space for Gill to rest.

They started a GoFundMe page to raise £1,500 and after just two days they have raised £857 - more than half their target.

On the page, the family said: "Most of you knew our Mother. Gill Garrod was an amazing parent that devoted her life to us - her kids. All of us owe her so much, so we can only hope to do her proud with this.

"She was as amazing as she was kind and she was always ready to help others.

"For those who weren’t lucky enough to meet our mother, she was our everything. From the moment our dad got diagnosed with Cancer she was unstoppable, she wanted to help him get better at the same time she wanted to help all of us.

"With 4 children - Ben was 16 year old, Tony was 14 year old, Jack was 9 year old and I (Brittany) was 8 years old - to raise now by herself, our mother was always trying to take care of all of us. She would drive us around for all of our after school activities… She would make sure we had everything we ever wanted… and above all else, she made sure we knew that we knew how much she loved us all.

"For years, she took care of us, she welcomed our friends, girlfriends, their families into our family. She did that until she couldn’t anymore.

"It has been a year since our Mum has passed away. 365 days of not having her around… And yet we still feel so lost that she isn’t around to share all the good moments, to give us a helping hand when we need it, or just simply to have a chat when we are upset.

"With this in mind, we wanted to create a space for our mum to rest. Somewhere we can go to talk to her and honour her. We would love to have a bench made in her honour, so we can stay close to her in the years to come. So we can feel like she is still around, that all we have to do is go out for a walk and she will be there. Looking after us still… Even if just in presence, she Will still be there.

"Tony and Jack want to do something towards this, so they would like to run 10km each in hopes that you will donate for our cause."

And the family have been touched by the response to the fundraising so far. They said: "Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far. We are incredibly touched by your kindness and just absolutely astonished by how much we have been able to raise in such a short time!

"We have started talking about the possibility of donating any extra money we receive to charities around our area. We will have a look around before we decide and will let you know how much we will give to each charity as we reach that milestone.

"Once again, thank you for helping us create such an important location for our family."

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